Makin' Muffins

Thanks to Ashley (a fellow gal I "met" through a military girlfriend's Web site), I had a new recipe to bake today. I know, I know, you're probably thinking, "Jessica, you can't cook." And while this is true, I really like trying. So here's my adventure in making a new (and healthy!) recipe. (FYI, they don't look anywhere near as delish as they do on Ashley's blog!)

Flax Seed Cranberry Muffins

The recipe calls for flax seed, and seeing as how flax seed is in the name of the recipe I decided to find out what flax seed was. Basically it has lots of Omega 3 and is high in fiber. You can sprinkle it on just about anything and it's great to cook with.

My mom and I picked some flax seed up at Whole Foods, but what we didn't know is that the seeds come whole and we needed them ground. Great. After trying to grind them with a coffee grinder (it was broken) we moved on to using a blender. That did the job.

Now it was onto the next part of the recipe. Cranberries. Since cranberries aren't exactly in season, and I forgot to buy some frozen ones, we decided to just go with cranberries in a can. In the end all, be all of things, I think the cranberries worked even though there was lots of sauce (we rinsed off all the goo till we only had the berries left).
Ok, so moving on. I had to mix the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients in separate bowls. Now, had I actually read the directions (this seems to be a recurring problem with me...) I would have read that I shouldn't put the cranberries in till later - oops! Here's what the wet stuff looked like (appetizing, huh!):

There's applesauce, eggs, egg whites, vanilla, cranberries and oil. Yum.

I almost forgot that I had to grate orange peel in there. I've never "zested" anything before, so I got out the grater and tried to make this work.

I mixed the whole shebang together and filled the muffin tins. The batch made 19 muffins, but I have enough flax seed left to make another batch. Next time (and there will be a next time because I think they're really yummy!) I'm going to make mini muffins.

They taste almost like bran muffins, but are a little sweet and a little tangy.

They may not look all that delicious, but trust me, they are!

Flax Seed Cranberry Muffins

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup of Ground Flax Seed
1 cup of whole cranberries
2 Eggs, 4 whites or 4 total eggs
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of applesauce
1/2 cup of brown sugar
tsp. of baking powder
3 tsp. of cinnamon
1 tsp. of nutmeg
1/2 tsp. of salt
1 Tbl. vanilla extract
2 tablespoons grated orange peel
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional for topping) - I didn't add the nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Liberally butter muffin tins. Makes anywhere from 12 to 24 muffins. Do not use paper muffin liners - they will stick.
1. Pour boiling water over cranberries. Let sit for 5 minutes and pour off water.
2. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients (minus the cranberries) separately, then mix them together.
3. Let mixture stand for 10 minutes to thicken.
4. Fold in cranberries.
5. Fill each muffin cup about half way, and sprinkle with nuts.
6. Bake about 15 minutes (a little longer if you're only making 12) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Keep up to a week in the refrigerator or 3 months in the freezer.