Recipe - Oatmeal Fruit "Muffins"

The "Muffins" is in quotes, because it's a muffin recipe I made in a cake pan.

This is a modified version of a recipe I found in one of my favorite cookbooks: "No Red Meat" * by Brenda Shriver and Ann Tinsley.

I've started juicing recently, and I was looking for a way to use all that leftover fabulous fruit pulp.

Now, without further adieu, here we go:


Ingredients

2 cups unbleached or all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups oats, quick or regular, uncooked

1/4 cup oil of choice

3 egg whites, slightly beaten (I used 1.5 tablespoons [4.5 teaspoons] liquid egg whites)

2 cups skim milk

3/4 cup fruit pulp of your choice


Directions

Preheat over to 400.

"Grease" 9 x 13 cake pan with olive oil

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and oats.

In a small bowl, combine oil, egg whites and milk.

Pour over dry ingredients all at one time; stir until mixed.

Fold in fruit pulp. Do not over mix (I did it all by hand - no mixer).

Pour batter into the cake pan. Bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned. A toothpick should come out clean.

Cool aout 5 minutes before serving.


Good Things to Know

I learned today that you can bake with olive oil! Thank goodness, because that's all I had handy. :-) "They" (the experts) suggest using extra light olive oil if you're going to bake with it, because of it's mild taste.

The original recipe called for a cup of raisins or chopped fruit. I used 3/4 cup of pulp, because pulp is so much more dense than raisins. However, since my juicer is so efficient, the pulp is very dry. When I make this again I'll use a full cup.

Two egg whites equal one full egg. It's easy enough to figure out, unless you're using liquid egg whites. For some reason my egg white container doesn't tell me what measurement equals one egg white. :-) Simply do this: if the recipe calls for three egg whites, find out what measurement equals 3 eggs and halve that.

Because the original recipe was for 18 large muffins, I used a 9 x 13 pan. If I were converting a recipe for 12 muffins, I'd probably use an 8 x 8 pan, or a large loaf pan.

The fruit pulp I used was from my morning juice: 2 apples, 1 orange, 2 stalks of celery and 3 carrots! Believe it or not, it was good.


* I used an Amazon.com link to display the book, because - let's face it - it's a great website that's wonderfully organized. However, Amazon.com sells animal fighting publications, despite the facts that thousands of people have begged them to stop AND it's illegal to do so in every state! (They've found some sort of loophole.) Although I wish I could, I do not buy anything from Amazon.com, and I hope you'll consider boycotting them as well.