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Blueberry Nut Oat Bran Muffins?

I made up a batch of these after kids had gone to bed a few nights ago. I changed the recipe a little. I was looking for a terrific oat bran recipe where I could use my frozen blueberries (I froze them myself-so no extra sugar/syrup) and bottled pear sauce(I helped make this at a local cannery). I followed this recipe from Allrecipes.com with only a few changes.
I used 1 cup pear sauce (it's more liquid-y than applesauce), and I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the white flour. Also instead of the oatmeal topping I used a bit of Grape Nuts cereal. And believe me, once these come out of the oven...you get over the fact that they are made with OAT Bran! (I ate 3 on the spot--so much for healthy). I froze about half of them and they were yummy after thawed.

Overall. Your kids will hate 'em. (Oh darn, more for me eh?) But they are sweet enough and have an okay texture in a 'bran muffin' sort of way.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups oat bran (seems like a lot, but persevere!)
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (changed to ww.)
  
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I would cut this down next time, the pear sauce has sugar added)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/8 cups applesauce (I used pear sauce)
  
• 1/2 cup egg substitute
• 2 tablespoons canola oil (I was out of this, used vegetable)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1/4 ounce chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup low fat granola

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper muffin liners, and spray liners with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix the oat bran, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, blend the applesauce, egg substitute, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Thoroughly mix the applesauce mixture into the flour mixture. Fold in the blueberries and pecans. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle batter with granola, and press granola lightly to make it stick.
3. Bake 18 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

My oven is funny so I cook muffins at 375 deg. But a little tip...heat oven to 350 deg. and then up it to 375 when you put the muffins in the oven. (Something about the burst of heat activating the baking powder--Alton Brown tip).


Remind me to blog about my latest non-diet, diet. These muffins? Totally fine to eat with all that bran and whole wheat and fruit and brown sugar. (I've lost 4 pounds in under 2 weeks--and believe me these were 4 pounds that have eluded removal for 2 solid years. And they came off with no extra excercising!)