Recipe ReDux Post # 78 Banana Blueberry Oat Bran Muffins

January's Recipe ReDux challenge is ringing in the New Year with a theme of cooking with "new to you" ingredients.  We were encouraged to share a healthy recipe using an ingredient that we have never tried before. Since I went gluten-free over 5 years ago I have always missed certain baked goods, namely muffins. I have created many recipes of my own to satisfy the craving and am always scanning the offerings at local coffee shops and bakeries to see if they may have any tasty gluten free options to treat myself from time to time as well. When we were in Tahoe for the holidays I was surprised and delighted to find gluten free oat bran muffins in skiing village coffee shop and have been thinking about trying to experiment with using oat bran at home too.  This challenge seemed to be the perfect opportunity to try making with it so I ordered some of Bob's Red Mill gluten free oat bran and went to work. I decided to keep with one of my favorite bases to use when baking muffins, mashed banana in order to keep the sugar and fat content low. I also added some corn meal to enhance the flavor as well and the recipe came out pretty darn good!   Hopefully you will enjoy it too and l check out all the other "new" culinary creations developed by the talented Recipe ReDux group.  

Ingredients:

2/3 cup oat bran ( use Bob's Red Mill if you are on a gluten-free diet)

1/4 cup oat flour (use a gluten free brand such as Bob's Red Mill if you are on a gluten-free diet)

1/4 cup corn meal

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3 large sized over ripe bananas, mashed

6 Tablespoons liquid egg white

¼ cup (packed) brown sugar

1/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh blueberries 

cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the oat bran, oat flour, cornmeal, baking soda and baking powder in a small bowl.  In a large bowl, mix together the mashed banana, brown sugar, egg whites, milk and vanilla. Add the oats bran/flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in the blueberries. Spoon into a 12 space regular size muffin pan coated with cooking spray and bake for about 25 minutes, until top is firm, lightly browned and a toothpick comes out mostly clean when inserted into the center.

 Makes 12 servings

Serving size 1 muffin Calories 130 Protein 3 g Carb 20 g Fiber 3 g Sugars 9 g Fat 4 g Saturated fat 1 g Sodium 73 mg

IMPORTANT NOTE: these muffins are very moist so the ones you do not eat on the day you bake them must be stored in the fridge.