Banana & prune muffins with wheatbran

One of the perks of foodblogging is that you receive quite a few cookbooks for review - but I honestly must admit that many of them go straight, well, not exactly to the bin, but onto a some shelf in a spare room where they gather dust and not much thought is spent on them again. These are mainly the ones which come without pictures (I'll always give preference to any cookbook which has accompanying photographs - enticing ones! - with every recipe, unless it's a reference cookbook with basic techniques etc) or, sad as this may sound, those which give imperial measures only. It's not just the fact that I simply can't and won't get used to cup measures, I find them highly unreliable, especially when it comes to baking.
Only two weeks ago I got a really nice package from Canada, containing not only a review copy of the book "More from ACE bakery - recipes for and with bread" by Linda Haynes, but it came with a personal note from the author, rather than a press release, and a drawstring cotton bread bag... very nice touch! I immediately leafed through the pages, earmarking many a delicious-sounding recipe for the next brunch (Cheddar & Bacon Stuffed French Toasts with Maple-Glazed Pears, Jamaican Banana Fritters), a nice quick lunch (Warm Roasted Sweet Potato and Pear Salad, Red Pepper and Corn Soup) and of course, lots of tempting bakery goods as well. Best of all, her introductory note explains how imperial measures just don't work in baking which is why she recommends always going by the metric system, but gives both versions for those who don't own kitchen scales. Perfect, finally someone who understands that weight is more reliable than volume... as she says in her "Baking 101", a ton of feathers will always weigh the same as a ton of stones.
So on I went to try my first recipe out of her book: tempting wheatbran muffins with banana and dates. When it comes to bananas, I am in the same boat as many of you out there - I always have some of them in the fruit bowl that are at the height of their existence and need to be used up imminently - but being creative with bananas is not the easiest of things. So this recipe came as a good alternative for my banana, chocolate and pecan brownies and are a perfect treat for the kids... easily hiding the "healthy" aspect through utter scumptiousness!
As per her recommendation and my own preference, I went by her metric measures. Not for long, though. Going through the list of ingredients, I was puzzled to find that all of them were noted in millilitres, no matter whether it was a dry or a wet one. For those of you unfamiliar with the metric system, we measure liquids in millilitres, but dry goods in grams - some substances can come in either, like butter can be measured in grams when it's solid and millilitres when you're using melted butter. So I thought, oh well, it's just a silly little mistake by the editor, and decided to overlook this basic error - as long as the quantities were right, I shouldn't get hung up such details and read grams for millilitres where required.
But they weren't, as I soon came to realise when I weighed out the wheatbran. 240 ml (think g) of it, to be precise, waiting to be soaked in just 60 ml milk... that couldn't be right? So I looked at the imperial measures to be sure: 1 cup! Now, I didn't actually measure it out, but 240 g of wheatbran is easily 10 cups, if not more! So despite the explanation in the preface, they must have used some conversion tables, rather than trying the recipes out with scales, and disregarded the fact that a cup of milk doesn't have the same weight as a cup of wheatbran! So I threw the recipe out of the window and went by the cup measures, converting them into metric as I went along and using my own intuition where necessary - I am not sure if my muffins taste like they do at the ACE Bakery, but they sure were delicious... not too sweet, not too fatty, but dense and moist and full of flavour.
Leaving the metric and imperial issue aside, I will still use this book - I can thoroughly recommend it for those who are happily using cups and ounces... and for all you out there who use metric, like me, you might want to wait for me to try the recipes and convert the measures for you, I promise there are some delicious creations waiting to be savoured!

Banana & prune muffins with wheatbran*
(makes 8 medium muffins)

50 g wheatbran
230 ml milk
90 g light brown sugar
140 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp fine cooking salt
1½ large bananas
1 large egg
70 g butter (melted)
120 g soft Agen prunes (chopped)

Work the wheatbran in with 120 ml of the milk and soak for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 190 C.
Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and brown sugar together, getting rid of any lumps.
Mash the banana up and combine with the egg, butter, remaining milk and the prunes. Add the wheatbran, then the flour mixture and work into a smooth dough with a fork.
Line 8 muffin moulds with fitting paper cases and divide the mixture between them. Place in the oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until a metal skewer comes out clean.

* Based on a recipe for Decadent banana and date bran muffins in "More from ACE bakery - recipes for and with bread" by Linda Haynes, p. 31

Comments

[Jennifer Klinec]

The Ace Bakery!! I love their breads - they are a bit of an institution in Toronto. I can't stop eating their fougasse whenever I go back home to Canada to visit family.

I didn't realise that they have a cookbook - I'd love to hear more recipes from them as you bake your way through it!

[Tim]

I loved your metric conversion comments. They provide me with a challenge too as most of the recipes I follow are American, yet here in New Zealand we follow metric measurements. I have a great pair of scales with dual measurements - I would be lost without them!

[Scott at Real Epicurean]

I love muffins - but not the overly enlarged mutations you find in the shops.

I've got to get back to making some for breakfast.

[Julia]

tasty muffins!
I have that as well - the recipes can be wonderful, but I always prefer pictures! =)
the book sounds great! - so nice you got it just like that(!)

[Pepper]

Grams for ml works for liquids, or things with a density close to water. Something really light like wheat bran would take up far more volume, as you note, to make up that many grams. Definitely looks like they just did a volumetric conversion.

[johanna]

scott, I agree - the store-bought ones only taste of baking powder anyway...

[johanna]

tim, I do have scales as well, so I am fine with doing oz etc, but I still struggle with cups!!!
They regulate the size and shape of bananas here in the EU, how about some global initiative to convert everybody to metric? I am sure the publishers would appreciate it ;-)

[Melissa]

I ran across a book like that once. It just shows a complete lack of understanding of what the metric system is all about, doesn't it? Personally, I've come to love metric since living in Europe, but I don't have much hope that (North) Americans will see the light anytime soon. While there have been a few books published in recent years that included both (and did them both correctly!), I've also heard that publishers in the US tend to discourage cookbook authors from doing so because it "clutters up the page"...!

[johanna]

hi melissa, that's sad and hilarious at the same time... i actually think it would increase their sales, as many people in the rest of the world shy away from cups!