Whole wheat banana wheat germ muffins with chocolate chips

A month or two ago, I bought a fresh bag of wheat germ to make these blueberry-banana muffins for my husband.  He really enjoys a good breakfast muffin every so often!  I won't say I was left holding the bag but I did wonder what else I could do with all the leftover wheat germ since I hate to waste and always have this burning desire to make use of everything (at least, before their expiration date). I got lucky and spotted this whole wheat banana wheat germ muffin recipe that really caught my eye.

These muffins are made with whole wheat flour and wheat germ, sweetened with honey.  Chocolate chips (somewhat) optional.

It helped that the muffins I spotted were beautiful (with puffy domed tops that I was not able to achieve likely due to my over-zealousness when it comes to adding bananas) and had a Nutella swirl on top to boot (as you can see, I opted for miniature chocolate chips).  The other major selling point was how wholesome these muffins are...dare I say these actually qualify as healthy muffins?

When I say "healthy", I mean they are made with whole wheat flour (I like to use white whole wheat) and wheat germ.  That's it - no other flours.  Aside from the bananas, they are simply sweetened with honey.  There's a bit of canola oil involved, and I opted to include some chocolate chips just to make sure I wasn't being too virtuous.

I can be a little too generous with my banana measurement...my muffins were super moist

I was a little skeptical about the whole wheat flour-wheat germ combo going in but I couldn't resist such a potentially great use of my bag of wheat germ.  And you know what?  These are some good muffins!  They turned out flavorful and very moist - all the more so since I was a little heavy-handed with the mashed bananas.  Though that meant I ended up with rather sunken muffin tops, you won't find us complaining about too much moisture in a muffin!

My husband enjoyed these and even the picky 8-year old was a fan, and he can be rather picky about his banana muffins!  I'm glad he liked these because they are far less sweet and much healthier than his favorite banana muffins.  I would be happy to make these often and feel good about having them for a quick breakfast.  I hope you give it a try if you're a fan of muffins or if, like me, you find yourself with some wheat germ on hand that you need a good use for!

Honey-wheat cookies

I'd never used wheat germ before until last week when I bought a bag to make those tasty (and healthy) blueberry-banana muffins.  I still have quite a bit left and as luck would have it, I was indulging in one of my favorite pastimes - reading a cookbook - when I found another recipe to deploy the wheat germ for.  I was reading through Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan and making a growing list of things I might like to make when I saw this recipe for honey-wheat cookies, which calls for lemon zest, honey, and wheat germ.  It sounded like something worth trying during this post-holiday January when you (by that, I mean me or I) still want a sweet treat but prefer to stay on the lighter, healthier side.

Like its name suggests, the flavor and texture of these cookies come from the combination of lemon zest, honey, and wheat germ.  To up the health factor a bit further, I substituted some of the all-purpose flour used in this recipe with white whole wheat flour.  There's wheat germ in the cookies themselves and they also get a coating of it on the outside before baking.  I really liked that, as it gave the cookies a bit more texture on the outside, similar to what you'd get if you rolled them in sugar and this is certainly a far healthier option.  These cookies just cry out for a cup of tea to go alongside.

When the cookies first came out of the oven, they were pretty nondescript and I worried about what the combination of wheat germ, honey, and lemon zest would taste like.  It was better than I thought it would be.  It's like biting into a soft cake - sweet, moist, and with a nice lemon perfume and flavor to it.

This cookie might lend more towards adult palates though.  Our six-year old was not into it.  Obviously, this is no chocolate cookie but it is a nice change up in the cookie rotation right now.

Blueberry-banana muffins

So here we are in the early days of January.  The merry-making of the holiday season is over.  I'm bummed about that; I just love Christmastime with all the lights, decorations, parties and, of course, all the delicious food and treats.  Now in January, it appears we're left with the aftermath and it just doesn't feel right to sit here and write about rich desserts.  Everyone's cutting back and as much as I dislike the idea of dieting and excessive restraint, I, too, can tell that I might have enjoyed the holidays a teeny bit too thoroughly.

I'm not taking sweets or desserts out of my life - oh no.  I'm just taking it slow and practicing a little more restraint for a few weeks.  But I still have a strong urge to bake something all the time so I'm trying to focus on some lighter, more healthful choices.  So today, I'm making blueberry-banana muffins.  Two fruits in the title means it has to be good for you, right?  Yes!

This muffin not only has blueberries and bananas in it, it has other good stuff we can boast about too.  Wheat germ, for one.  And instead of just all-purpose flour, these muffins are made with a combination of whole wheat and all-purpose flour.  I use white whole wheat flour, which I think has a more subtle texture and flavor but still all the benefits of plain whole wheat.  Yes, there's still butter and sugar in this recipe.  Specifically, there's roughly 2/3 tablespoon of butter and less than one tablespoon of sugar per muffin.  And don't forget all the good stuff in there: blueberries, banana, wheat germ, whole wheat flour - and  we even use 2% low-fat milk!  So I think we can all have one of these on a January morning without any guilt.

The best part?  Other than they're better for you than the typical muffin, they taste really good!  The muffins are soft and moist, not heavy at all, and I love the little bit of grainy texture from the whole wheat flour and wheat germ.  I have to tell you I was tempted to sprinkle some sanding sugar on top of these just before they went into the oven but I restrained myself...and I think they are just sweet enough without it.  Now if you want to go ahead and do that though, I think it would be a good idea.