Claire 2.0, Pt 2

Well I finally got around to my first recipe experiment for healthy baking. I had some old bananas that were overripe, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity for attempting a customization of the classic banana nut muffin. I started with the original that I found in my favorite cooking website, allrecipes.com. The original recipe can be found at this link.

In all honesty, I did not make this original recipe. I figure discretion to be the better part of valor when it comes to food. No sense in making the lesser of two choices health-wise, and tempting my inner caveman brain to say "Hey! This one's better! I can survive all winter on all these calories! Let's make more!"

So, I made a few changes for starters. Nothing too ambitious. I do not use electric mixers or anything, all is done by hand. Worked out fine. The new recipe is below:

Banana chocolate-chip muffins (makes 12 muffins)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 mashed overripe bananas
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup spelt flour
6 Tablespoons cold milled flax
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease 12-cup muffin tin. In medium bowl, combine bananas, flax, egg and vanilla & mix well together. Using a serving fork makes for easy mixing.

In large bowl, combine flours, cocoa, baking powder & salt. Stir in the banana mix until just blended. Fold in chips & walnuts. Spoon batter into prepped muffin tin until each cup is 2/3 full.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove muffins from tin and place onto metal rack for complete cooling.

So let's compare the nutritional information between the two recipes (drum roll please):

Per muffin (original/new recipe):
Calories: 318/164
Fat: 17.2/5.3
Carbs: 40.6/26
Fiber: 2.4 g/3.8
Protein 3.7g/4.3

Holy MOLY! Look at what just a small change in flour, or using flax instead of oil can do for a muffin recipe! Not to mention it was quite tasty. I don't know if I would have really noticed the difference between the original and the healthier alternative. Viva la spelt flour!