Whole wheat muffins with raisins and dried cranberries

I have never particularly had an opinion one way or the other about parties, only that people who extend an invitation have to be respected. By parties I mean potlucks, birthdays, get-togethers or anywhere a small group gathers to celebrate or complain or whatever the case maybe. To some I go out of a sense of duty, some out of necessity and some of out of real interest. But none that I have looked forward to as much as the 'bon voyage' party our neighbor had for her son last week. Amidst the snow and being stuck inside, it provided an opportunity to get outside even if it were just a few steps walk over to the next door. The party was postponed a day to give time to dig ourselves out first and gave all the more reasons to look forward to it. I am building up the climax more than necessary but you get my point. Well anyway the guest of honor who is going away on a job to Spain could not make it to the party because he was snowed in, another family who are also our neighbors 2 houses over and the daughter of the house made it, giving enough people for a celebration. We sang 'bon voyage' to the tune of Kumbaya over the phone, ate some delicious cake and lunch.

The snow has brought things to notice that we might have forgotten and even kindled the non existent baking skills, muscles and bones in my upper and forearms that I never knew existed. You have got to read this short news article for some laughs. If you have a good technology to truck snow hundreds of miles without melting please do let me know, I would like to make some money selling it to Vancouver who are in a severe snow drought. I maybe joking but this is no laughing matter. More the evaporation, more severe the winter storms and hurricanes are going to get, what goes up eventually has to come down either in the form of rain or snow. Direct effects of a warming planet.

Baking is not one of my forte not that I have many fortes, the patience and precision required is not just my cup of tea. Sometimes it is the gazillion ingredients and instructions that makes my eyes glaze over even before I have read through the ingredients list while sometimes it is the warning to stick to the actual measurements which is very very hard. So I see this muffin recipe on Red Chillies and it sure sounded doable and it looked like it would lend itself quite nicely to modifications and additions. The first chance I got to make it out, made a beeline to the grocery store to buy some apple sauce.

Being cooped in the house has made a baker out of me and I have cranked up the oven more times in the last week than I have the entire last year.

We regularly buy bran muffins, it has a very dense texture and is not cakey. If you like your muffin to have a cakey texture, substitute with all purpose flour. I am not fond of cake like sweet muffins for breakfast, so went with stone ground whole wheat flour. The kids are also quite fond of the bran muffin and so this muffin was just perfect for us.

Serving: 12 muffins + a small 'cake' loaf
Whole wheat muffins with raisins and dried cranberries
Ingredients
1. 2 Cups whole wheat flour (stone ground)
2. 2/3 cups of sugar (turbinado sugar)
3. 2 1/2 cups of unsweetened apple sauce
4. 1 egg + 2 tbsp butter (substitute with oil or increase the apple sauce by a cup)
5. 1/2 tsp salt
6. 1/2 tsp baking powder
7. 1/2 cup raisins + dried cranberries
8. 1-2 tbsp broken pecans

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Beat the egg till frothy.
2. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the apple sauce into the dry ingredients and mix together, add the egg and the butter till well combined.
4. Mix in the raisins and cranberries.
5. Pour into lined muffing pans and the greased cake pan.
6. Top with the nuts
7. Bake for 25 minutes and a knife inserted comes out clean.