Brown Rice & Apple Muffins

I enjoy getting and reading the Vegetarian Times and sometimes I use their recipes. Mostly, I use their recipes as a 'jumping off point' to do my own version of their recipes for various reasons. In a 2006 issue, they published a recipe for Apple Oat Muffins. It turned cold today and muffins seemed like a good idea. I glanced at the recipe and saw the ubiquitous 'quick-cooking oats' as a major component.

I have a thing about quick-cooking oats as well as 'instant' oats. The 'manufacturers' of these things take an excellent food, remove whatever they can for convenience, and ruin it. Anyone who has had proper oats would never eat the stuff. So, there is no way I'm going to buy quick-cooking oats to make muffins. I do have some multi-grain cereal flakes, but that would be too easy to substitute.

While perusing recipes, I vaguely remembered seeing a recipe for cornbread that added cooked quinoa to it. So, not having quinoa, but having brown rice, I decided to experiment.

The results were excellent. The brown rice keeps everything very moist and soft.


Brown Rice & Apple Muffins
(vegan)

Servings: 12
Approx 170 calories per muffin

2 c medium apples, peeled and finely diced
1 1/2 c flour, all-purpose
1 c Brown Rice - Cooked
1 c brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 c Soy Yogurt - plain unsweetened
1/4 c soy or almond milk
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (see note below)
1 Tbs Flaxseed Meal
3 Tbs water

Preheat oven to 400F
Spray muffin pan with baking spray
In a small saucepan, heat 3 Tbs of water. Add 1 Tbs flaxseed meal and cook 3 minutes until thickened. Set aside to cool.

Combine remaining dry ingredients in a bowl. Add diced apple and mix.

Combine remaining wet ingredients in bowl, add flaxmixture and mix.

Add wet to dry and stir until just mixed.

Add batter to muffin pan. (The individual muffin cups will be very full, but do not rise enough to overflow when baked)

Bake for 20 minutes or until centers pop back when pressed


Note: I'm not a big fan of vanilla, so only put 1 1/2 tsp in. If you like the taste, you might increase that to 2 tsps.