Maria's Version of Post 100% Bran Muffins

I posted on both of these groups a while back asking for recipes for a
low-cost, low-cal muffin I could have for breakfast. Some people
suggested recipes, some suggested recipe sites. I diligently searched the
rec.food.recipes archives and found several great recipes, which I printed
off. I made a shopping list from the recipes and went armed with it on a
grocery store visit. Well, I was half-way through the store and wound up
in the cereal aisle (I needed bran flakes). I remembered someone saying
the recipe on the box of All Bran was good, so I picked it up and checked
it out. Nope, too much oil. (Oil has 120 calories per tablespoon! And
these recipes were calling for 1/4 to 1 cup! Ack!) The Post 100% Bran
box caught my eye. Ah ha -- a low fat bran muffin recipe that used no
oil! I put back everything from my shopping list (except what I needed
for the Post recipe), put the diligently printed and sorted recipes away,
and just winged it with the Post recipe.

All I can say is WOW! The first time I made it, it seemed a little bland
and dry, but was definitely passable for a decent-sized muffin with only
110 calories and 5 grams of fiber! The next time, I added 3/4 mashed
banana, and it was more moist and quite good! The time after that, I
added some walnuts and dried cherries -- now that was a gourmet
muffin!! My husband, who's pretty picky, loved all of them, and ate up
his 6 right away! I highly recommend this recipe, and it's pretty
cheap -- about $.15/muffin (walnuts/cherries make them a little more
expensive).

Here's the recipe as I made it -- the recipe as it's on the box follows:

Maria's Version of Post 100% Bran Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups Post 100% Bran Cereal
1 1/4 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce
(optional: 1 medium ripe banana, mashed)
a little quick-cooking oatmeal

Heat oven to 400F. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in
large bowl. Mix cereal, milk, and sugar in another bowl; let stand for 5
minutes. Stir in egg and applesauce (and banana). Add to flour
mixture; stir until just moistened. (Batter will be lumpy.) Spoon batter
into muffin pan sprayed with no-stick cooking spray, filling each cup 2/3
full. Sprinkle a bit of oatmeal on each muffin. Bake 18-20 minutes or
until golden brown. Makes 12.

I did my own calorie/fat/fiber count and came up with 110 calories, 1 gram
fat, and 5 grams fiber per muffin. Complete nutritional analysis of
unmodified recipe is below.

POST 100% BRAN Cereal Low Fat Bran Muffins (unmodified)

1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups Post 100% Bran Cereal
1 1/4 cup 2% milk
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce 

Heat oven to 400F. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in
large bowl. Mix cereal, milk, and sugar in another bowl; let stand for 5
minutes. Stir in egg and applesauce (and banana). Add to flour
mixture; stir until just moistened. (Batter will be lumpy.) Spoon batter
into muffin pan sprayed with no-stick cooking spray, filling each cup 2/3
full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 12. 

Nutrition Information Per Muffin: 130 calories, 1.5 gram fat, 0 gram
saturated fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 180 mg sodium, 29 g carbohydrate, 5 gram
fiber, 4 g protein, 25% daily value iron.

Source:

misc.consumers.frugal-living