Banana-Carrot-Cranberry Muffins

Another day off today...so after a nice little outdoor swim I had to bake something. It was gonna be a "banana-something" because I had 2 very ripe bananas begging to be used.
But I also wanted to make something with carrots, for variety and because I've been making a lot of shakes lately, I want to keep my frozen fruit for smoothies!! So, I looked through some books, found a recipe for carrot muffins, but not using bananas. And then there's my favorite recipe of banana-oat muffins, not using carrots. So I took a shot and kinda combined the two. The carrot muffin recipe looked amazing as it was though, I will try it eventually!

These came out great, they are moist and light. The molasses taste comes out a little, but not over-powering. It gives it a nice darker color too.

Ok. Here's the recipe, adapted from Marg Ruttan's "Biscuits et Muffins":
(yields 9-10 big muffins)



Dry ingredients:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Wet ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled
1 cup mashed bananas

1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Grease up some muffin molds, and turn the oven at 375F. Set the rack in the middle.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl, set aside.
In another bowl, mix all the wet until lightly frothy.
Pour the wet mix in the dry mix, along with the carrots and cranberries, mix until just combined, without over-mixing.
Scoop in the muffin tins(ice cream scoop works best), and bake for 20-25 minutes.
When they're done they will spring back when you press on them, or do the knife test...
Cool for 10 minutes in the molds, then carefully unmold and cool on a wire rack.

Very nice and tender muffins.



With margarine and a glass of juice, it's a nice little pre-workout snack or afternoon sugar fix.

Cranberry-Orange Oatmeal Bread

I decided to go for a sweet bread this week. And since I had one lone orange wrinkling in the fruit bowl, too dry to eat, it sparked the idea for this. The zest was still salvagable and I managed to get a little juice from it. And what goes good with orange? CRANBERRIES!! Plenty of dried fruit in my pantry! So giddi-yup!

Ingredients:
2-3 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 egg
zest of 1 orange, plus its juice
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1- 1 1/2 cup warm water at 120F

First off, grate the zest, and squeeze the juice of an orange. Set aside.
In a big bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, 1 cup of the bread flour, yeast, salt, sugar and orange zest.
Heat the water to 120 and add the orange juice and cranberries. That way, the crans will soften a bit!!
Pour the liquid in the flour mix and whisk with a fork, add the egg and another cup bread flour. When it starts coming together transfer to the kneading surface and keand for 8-10 minutes, adding more flour if necessary. When it's all smooth shape into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl and rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.
Gently punch it down, knead for 1-2 minutes and shape to fit a loaf pan, or into an old-fashionned loaf and rise again for about 30 minutes, until double in size.
*I was gonna do it on a tray but then decided otherwise. I like the big slices I get in the loaf pan, the bread always gets nice and tall.
After the second rise, brush with eggwhites and sprinkle some oats on top.
bake in a 350F oven for 35-40 minutes.
When it's done it'll sound hollow when tapped.
Take it out of the pan immediately and cool on a rack.
I had a couple slices for lunch, with goat's cheese and coleslaw...the sweetness of the bread go really nice with the tartness of the cheese.



It'll make great french toasts too!!

I'm sending this over to Yeastspotting!!