Healthy low fat, low sugar granola muffins with added bonus of an avocado variation!
Kefir granola muffins
Kefir granola muffins
Kefir granola muffins
Kefir granola muffins
- 1 and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, whole wheat white works too
- 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten, helps with rising when using 100% whole wheat
- 1/4 cup sugarleaf, Sugarleaf is one part stevia to one part sugar. You can us a cup of brown sugar instead
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil, If making the avocado variation as described in the text, just use 2 tbls of sunflower oil
- 1 1/2 cups lowfat vanilla flavored Kefir, or 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 3/4 cup( plus extra for topping) granola, see my homemade granola recipe or store bought is fine too.
- Variation ingredient :3/4 cup avocado pureed, You would use this instead of the 1/3 cup oil
- For more info on the variation see text and photo's
Kefir granola muffins
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with aluminum baking cups. Aluminum allows you to pop the low fat muffins out with ease.
- Whisk together all the dry ingredients, including the 3/4 cup granola. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, vegetable oil and kefir or buttermilk. Pour the liquid into the dry mix and stir just to combine.
- Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them until almost full. I used a 1/2 measuring cup to for the filling process. Sprinkle the muffins with extra granola.
- Bake muffins for 18-19 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean your muffins are done. If not, bake 3-5 minutes longer.
- Remove muffins from oven and cool for about 5 minutes and then transfer onto a cooling rack. Make sure muffins are completely cool if you plan to freeze them.
Kefir Granola muffins
Kefir is similar to say, a drinkable yogurt, but contains beneficial yeast and probiotics. It's in the same catagory as tempeh, miso, sauerkraut and other fermented things. It's creamy and delicious. It makes the muffins super moist without all the extra oil.
This recipe came about because my husband and I recently flew to Germany. If you have done any overseas flights lately , you know that breakfast is lame but let's face it, it's airline food. I created this recipe using my homemade granola. I was just going to take the granola but felt like asking for a bowl and some milk would of aggravated the already exhausted flight attendants. So the muffins were the easiest way to transport milk and granola. It was a welcome treat after trying to sleep upright all night! Now if I could just figure out how folks sleep like babies on long flights, I will have it made!
Not to completely slam airline food, I have to say that the lunch they served on the flight back was the best in-flight meal in the history of flying. It was prepared by a German firm and it was rice with vegetables and a well prepared tofu. Shock of shocks! It can be done! Even my snack was on a whole grain bread! See now that wasn't so impossible.
I double and freeze this recipe. Not only are they fab for breakfast, but also make for a healthy late night snack!
Update and variation: One of my girlfriends made this recipe and found it to be too dry. Then in the same week another girlfriend brought me a gigantic avocado from her backyard in Florida. She is always testing me with exotic ingredients! Well, with the dry comment in mind and the avocado, with a ton of good fat sits in my hand, I decide to update this recipe. Check the photos for the variations! I just added more kefir than the original recipe which I already changed and changed the one-third cup oil for just two tablespoons of oil and three fourths cup pureed avocado. It made a difference! I liked the first variation ,but the avocado created a better texture.
