This is probably the kind of thing that could get my citizenship revoked, but I hate Tim Horton’s. Oh, sure, they used to be good, back when their donuts were actually baked on-site, fresh, in each individual store, before these dark days of par-baked pastries that are frozen and sent to the stores to be “finished off”; back when they focused on being a half-decent coffee and donut shop instead of expanding their lunch menu to include sandwiches that probably taste better from Subway, salty-yet-flavourless soups, and institutional-sized vats of (shudder) beef lasagna casserole. Unfortunately, flash-frozen donuts and subpar lunch items seem to be the order of the day, and I no longer have any interest in them. Also, their coffee smells like cat pee (and I live with both cats and Tim’s drinkers, so trust me on this one). But I digress.
I had some oat bran left in the cupboard from my last adventure with the Applesauce-Oat Bran muffins from Veganomicon, and thought I ought to bake some muffins this weekend. Last time, I made them pretty much according to the recipe, and added raisins. This time, I had planned to add some dried cranberries, when my mom reminded me that there were oodles of fresh blueberries in the fridge. Lightbulb moment! What about a cranberry-blueberry-bran muffin, much like the ones found at the above-mentioned national treasure of a coffee chain?
Ha! Tim’s can suck it! Not only did these come out beautifully, they have almost half the calories of one of those flash-frozen abominations (based on a rough calculation using calorie counts for my individual ingredients, divided by twelve muffins). I followed the recipe for the most part, increasing the cinnamon by 1/2 tsp and swapping out the cardamom for 1/2 tsp ground ginger. I also added just a touch of molasses to give them a deeper flavour, and then folded in 1/3 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup fresh blueberries. Now that’s a satisfying 174 calories!
But don’t worry – I haven’t gone totally health-food on everyone. It was my turn for Bake Day at work last week; check out the margarita cupcake redux:
The minis are so cute; the public loves them; I may well spend the rest of my days making margarita cupcakes to slake the desires of friends and co-workers.
The Witty Child 