Cholesterol Off-setting Double Black Bran Muffins

King bee and I went out for a nice long Sunday hike around the old quarry near our village when we came across this patch of blackberries just begging to be picked and eaten. What's a girl to do but empty out her camera bag and fill it to the brim with her bounty! Once I got them home I knew immediately what had to be done.

I'm always looking for a tasty way to add more fibre to my diet, as I have a bit of a digestive disorder and the fibre keeps me keepin' on. I came across this yummy bran muffin recipe on the Farmgirl Fare blog, the very same blog that kick-started my current obsession with food blogs and certainly fueled my desire to start my own blog. Thanks Farmgirl Susan! I've been experimenting with these scrummy muffins over the past few weeks, (thanks again Susan!) and this combo really seemed to work well.


You can find the original scrumptious recipe from the farmgirl blog here. I had to make a few changes to the ingredient list since living in Britain means there are just some American staples I'm just not able to get my hands on here, like cornmeal and reeses pieces and baking soda toothpaste. Not that you need any of those things for this recipe, but what you do need is molasses, and we just can't get that here. So you use the next best thing; something mysteriously called Black Treacle and is supposed to be 50% molasses and 50% golden syrup (which is what we would call pancake syrup back in the US of A) according to my friend, and resident treacle authority, Sarah.

The other thing I wasn't able to find at my local supermarket was canola oil - can you believe it? I usually just use olive oil in place of canola oil in most recipes, but I recently found something called carotino oil, which is a mix of red palm & canola oils, and has this fetchingly rich amber color. If you believe everything that's written on the label, this stuff can change the world. It's chock full of beta carotenes, which means extra vitamin A and E for the bod, a good source of both lycopene and Co-enzyme Q10, the cancer fighting heroes, and is rich in omega 3 & 6's. Amazing. It also claims to be cholesterol free and combined with the cholesterol reducing oatbran, should make for some lean, mean cholesterol fighting muffins. Take that, cholesterol.