Autumn baking

The calendar has changed, it's now autumn, and I think that must trigger some sort of subconscious urge to bake. Leslie made a yummy-looking pie and I've been thinking about pumpkin bread. Thinking about it, even bought a tin of pumpkin, but instead I found myself in the kitchen early this afternoon, baking raisin bran muffins.

I know they're healthy and one of those good-for-you foods, but that's not why I bake them. I happen to think raisin bran muffins are delicious! The recipe I use is the only one that I consider a success -- using natural bran instead of bran breakfast cereal is the key, I think. You can find my recipe HERE, at Food.com (formerly Recipezaar, which was a far better site), where I have several of my recipes stashed online. Hover your mouse pointer over my name (it's just below the recipe title) and you'll be able to click on a link to see all the recipes I have posted there.

A bag of natural bran is very inexpensive, although it can be a quest to find it in your local grocery store. In various stores I have seen it located in the baking aisle, with the breakfast cereals, with the oatmeal, and in the natural foods/health food area. I recommend you stash it in the freezer for long-term storage.

I've been doing some other cooking over the last few days, no pictures though. If you visit my boards on Pinterest, you'll see a new one called "Glad I Pinned It!!" and that's where you'll see a pin for a wonderful stovetop macaroni and cheese I whipped up a few days ago, as well as some yummy chickpea patties I made yesterday.

The above image is definitely a little artsy-fartsy for a food photo, so here's a more normal photograph of today's bran muffins. As you can see, I don't use paper liners in my muffin tins -- I find they rise higher without them. I just spray the pans with Pam. I missed hearing the timer and so this batch was in the oven about a minute or two too long; they're still yummy and tender, but the exteriors did get a wee bit overdone. Next time I'll set two timers!