I was tempted to call these 'Hi-Fi" Muffins - which they are, but went with the name used by the originator - Mairlyn Smith. Mairlyn is a blogger. cookbook author, and TV personality. She recently began her own You Tube channel - My Left Frying Pan - in which she combines her creds as a Home Economist with the sense of humour that accounts for her stint with Second City. Mairlyn's motto is "Peace, Love and Fibre" - and these muffins deliver on the fibre! - and of course, the peace and love...
Do you listen to podcasts? I never used to until I discovered that they help me get through the tedium of a weekly exercise program I attend. (I download the podcast onto my iPhone, and link it to a bluetooth earbud.) This week, I listened to CBC's Ideas program called Fat and Sugar, Part 2. Part 1 focused on Fat, but I skipped ahead to Part 2 / Sugar - partly as motivation for post-holiday sugar withdrawal. It's well worth your time, though the producers remind listeners that none of the "sugar theories" are yet supported by a large, sound body of research. All the theorists agree that we need protein and fats and carbohydrates. Sugars are delivered to us in carbs - even natural sugars. Turns out there's a "trick" to healthy carb intake - it's called the "10 to 1 ratio". For every 10 grams of carbohydrates, there must be at least 1 gram of fibre. (The fibre changes the way the sugar is metabolized, with healthier results.) When a well known muffin maker delivers 52 g of carbs, but only 2 g of fibre (instead of the recommended 5.2 g) you have a problem. These muffins from Mairlyn contain 32 g of carbs and instead of the recommended 3.2 g of fibre, she has cranked it up to 6 grams! She calls these tasty muffins "pipe cleaners"!
For the first time, I am not reproducing the recipe here on my site. You can watch her make these and view the recipe here. (Click on "Show More" under her You Tube to see the recipe details.) I invite you to review my brief notes below.
Notes and Tips...
- Bananas - like Mairlyn I also freeze ripe / over-ripe bananas - however I usually pull the skin off first. I see one can freeze this with the skin on and in future will do it that way.
- Wheat Bran - I only had Oat Bran on hand and used that instead.
- Chocolate chips - clever of her to use mini chocolate chips - and only 1/4 cup. in the "mini" form they are nicely distributed thorough the muffins. You can get these at a bulk barn if your local grocery store does not sell them.
- Check out this Mairlyn Smith recipe for Pumpkin Date Spice Cookies!
- Hi-Fi - funny that these days that's more likely to stand for "high fibre". In my day it was short for "high fidelity" - which technically refers to sound quality, but in my youth referred to a "thing" - "Hey guess what! We just got a new hi fi!" BTW "High Fidelity" is a great book by Nick Hornby - made into an also enjoyable movie!
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