Bob’s Red Mill Cereal Muffins with Peaches, Strawberries, & Raisins

I love making muffins using Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain (or 10 grain) hot cereal. They’re similar to oat bran muffins, but so much better!

My husband enjoys eating muffins for an easy breakfast-on-the-go, and I always keep a batch in zip bags in the freezer for him. These muffins are especially great for those (like my DH) that do not like hot cereal! They make a great mid day snack too!

Here’s my recipe for muffins with peaches, strawberries and raisins:

Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain Cereal Muffins with Peaches, Strawberries, & Raisins

Makes 18 muffins

Ingredients

• 3 cups dry Bob’s Red Mill – 7 or 10 Grain Hot Cereal, or regular oat bran hot cereal
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• 3 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 cup sugar or sucanat
• 2 cups unsweetened Almond Milk (or any liquid equalling 2 cups: plain yogurt with water, regular milk, coconut milk, etc)
• 1 large egg (or extra-large, jumbo, whatever you have on hand, muffins are so forgiving!)
• 1/2 cup honey, preferably raw
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, preferably organic
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract (optional)
• 1 cup (not packed) raisins, preferably organic
• fresh fruit: handful of strawberries, 2-3 peaches or nectarines, 3-4 plums, a cup of blueberries, etc.
• Other optional ingredients like chopped nuts, seeds, etc.

Note: These muffins were sweet, so you can reduce the honey to 1/4 cup, which is what I will probably do next time I bake them.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. In very large mixing bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients: cereal, salt, baking powder, sugar
3. In large glass measuring cup, combine milk/water, eggs, honey, applesauce, and extracts
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry, mix carefully, try not to overmix.
5. Stir in fresh fruit
6. Spoon into muffin tins lined with paper – I use my Good Grips Medium Cookie Scoop that I picked up from Amazon last year. It isn’t overly large, so I need to usually scoop twice, but it works really well without too much mess.
7. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until tops are no longer soft and mushy to touch.

Mind you, I am NOT a baker, but I do like making muffins because they are so forgiving. I don’t have to measure quite as precise as other baked goods, like cakes and pies. I can throw a bunch of dry and wet ingredients together, and if the consistency is too dry, I add a touch more liquid.

Nutritional Data

1 muffin (from batch of 18)

Calories: 179
Total Fat: 1.7g
Cholesterol: 13.6mg
Sodium: 162mg
Potassium: 111mg
Carbs: 39g
Fiber: 4.8g
Sugar: 18g
Protein: 5g
Vit A: 2.7%
Vit C: 4.3%
Calcium: 7.4%
Iron: 7%

As I said, the sugars are on the high side. Reducing the honey to 1/4 cup, lowers the sugar to 14g. If you also reduce the raisins to 1/2 cup, the sugar is lowered to 12g. Start off reducing the sweeteners slowly, and your taste buds will get used to it.