Whole Wheat Muffins

The problems with most real whole wheat muffins are multiple: they’re heavy, dense and even slightly bitter, unless they contain a ton of sugar. Which explains why many “whole wheat” recipes call for wheat and white flour.

But this need not be. Enter whole wheat muffin 2.0; if you didn’t know it, you’d think the muffins here were made from something else.
Start with whole wheat pastry flour, which is ground much finer than regular wheat flour and results in a more delicate, lighter crumb. The other “secret” is to use a cup of puréed or mashed fruit or vegetable — banana, pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini, apple — to smooth the flavor of the muffin and ensure a moist consistency. Bananas and cooked pumpkin or sweet potato are easy enough to mash, but if you’re going with raw apple or zucchini, use a food processor fitted with a metal blade to purée it.

Like any muffin or quick bread dough, this one works best when handled minimally: mix together the dry ingredients, then the wet, and then fold the wet into the dry until everything is just combined, being careful not to over-mix the batter. If you mix too vigorously, you might overdevelop the gluten in the flour and end up with tough muffins, regardless of the flour type. Don’t fret about a few lumps; they’ll work themselves out while they bake.

Think of this as a master recipe and play with the ingredients to suit your taste. This recipe can handle about a half-cup of nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, shredded coconut, even chocolate chips; just don’t overload it with mix-ins. And a pinch of spice isn’t amiss, either. Some of my favorite combos are banana-walnut, pumpkin-coconut, and sweet potato with cardamom and ginger, none of them leaden, all of them whole wheat.