Morning Aromas

Every once in a while, I daydream of the day when I will wake up on a weekend to the distinctive aromas of goodies baking in the kitchen... but alas, until hubby decides to dabble in the kitchen, it looks like I have to create those wafting seductive aromas fully alert in my pyjamas!

Nothing beats the aromas of muffins baking in the oven interlaced with the fresh smells of good coffee as it drips and collects in the coffee-maker. Recently, I tried Bill Granger's Blueberry and Bran Muffins from his book, Bills Sydney Food.

• What attracted me to this recipe in the first place was the addition of bran cereal to the muffin mix as I will try anything that will help get a little more fibre into hubby's system.
• To balance the potential dryness from the bran cereal and flour mixture (consisting 1/2 cup bran cereal, 3 cups plain flour, 2 tsps baking powder and 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon), the recipe provides the addition of an entire grated apple, two mashed bananas and a whole punnet of blueberries, resulting in a muffin with a slightly more dense texture than the usual light muffins.
• And since we're almost halfway up the path of a healthy muffin, we might as well go all the way - this recipe does not call for butter and the fat content is replaced with the use of 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I used a light-flavoured olive oil), whisked together with 1/3 cup of milk and 3 eggs.
• Finally, instead of sugar, a slightly caramelized honey and butter mixture (I used slightly more than half a cup of honey with a heaped tablespoon of butter - caramelize honey with butter in saucepan for 5 minutes or more) is added as the final step to this muffin mix, before spooning batter into muffin cups, topping with a strawberry half for color, and baking in a preheated oven (180C) for 25 minutes or so.

A muffin which will hopefully not add too much guilt-laden calories in the morning and yet allow me to fill the home with inviting baking smells as I pull up a chair with my cup of coffee and the weekend papers!