I love when a recipe turns out absolutely amazing, especially when liberties are taken!

I finished canning and had a few peaches that too bruised to be used. Back in July, I received an update from "Food and Whine" about using peaches in muffins. Totally alien territory for me, using anything but berries in my muffin making, but I figured I'd take a risk and try this.

Boy am I glad I did! These muffins were so moist, with the peaches and yogurt, but not as sugary as I feared; it took a serious force of will not to devour the whole batch.

While the original recipe called for slivered almonds in the topping, I had pecans in my cupboard so I subbed those in; didn't miss the almonds at all!

These will make a great warm breakfast in the future; they were incredibly filling, yet light enough for the early hours, and have no need for butter at all ;)







Warm Peach Muffins

ingredients

2 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peaches, mashed

topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp vegetable oil

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl combine brown sugar, yogurt, oil, eggs, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth. Add to flour mixture, top with mashed peaches, and mix until just combined.

combine topping ingredients and stir until sugar begins to cling.

Pour batter into muffin cups or greased muffin tin, sprinkle with topping, and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

My batch made about 14 muffins using a small muffin tin.

Breakfast with Bran

Read On! Don't fear the 'B' word! I swear this breakfast is totally worth hitting the bulk store for a cup of wheat bran. These pecan brancakes turned out light and fluffy and oh so good! I made these on Friday, and froze most of them (they perk up great in the toaster oven) so i have breakky for a few days!

On a less enthusiastic note, the recipe i used claimed to make 12 brancakes, but even following the 1/3 cup measure direction i only ended up with 9. never the less, this recipe will be repeated many times over!

I adapted this recipe found in "Healthy Cooking For Two (Or Just For You)" by Frances Price a little, more from economy than taste. instead of the low-fat plain yogurt, i used a regular french vanilla, which complemented the cinnamon and honey without being too sweet

Pecan Brancakes

Ingredients for 6 Brancakes

1/3 cup All-purpose flour, unsifted
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 cup Wheat bran, fine or coarse
1 large Eggs
3/4 cup Low-fat plain or french vanilla yogurt
1 tbsp Molasses or honey
2 tbsp Chopped pecans
1 tsp Canola oil

Directions

Sift the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon into a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the bran.
In another medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs until foamy, then beat in the yogurt and molasses or honey.
Pour into the flour mixture and stir just enough to moisten. Add the pecans; do not over mix.

Place a heavy 10" nonstick or iron skillet over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, then brush the skillet lightly with 1/2 teaspoon of the oil. With a 1/3 cup measure, scoop the batter into the skillet to form thick brancakes about 3" across. Cook the brankcakes for 3 to 4 minutes, or until they are browned on teh bottom. Flip them and cook them for 2 to 3 minutes, or until both sides are brown. Remove the first batch of brancakes from the skillet.
Repeat until you've used all the oil and batter.


As for toppings, i tried a few, including tahini and honey (if you don't have tahini, which is a butter-like paste made from seasme seeds, you could use peanut or almond butter), apricot jam, and pancake syrup. Fresh berries or a cider syrup would also go great!

Cider Syrup

1 cup (or 2 for 12 brancakes) of apple juice or cider

in an small sauce pan, bring the juice to a boil over high heat. maintain boil until liquid is reduced by half, then remove from the heat