Maybe it’s just me, but I’m soooo tired of the sugary muffins typically sold at coffee shops, so I was pleased to recently find a hundred-year-old recipe for Graham Nut Muffins. The recipe called for just a little sugar (and a little molasses). The nuts embedded in the muffin add flavor and texture. This hearty muffin has a nice texture, is tasty, and is a healthy alternative to sweeter muffins.
Here’s the original recipe:
And, here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Graham Nut Muffins
1 cup graham flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used walnuts).
Preheat oven to 400° F. Grease muffin pans (or use paper liners). In a mixing bowl combine graham flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add egg, milk, molasses and butter; then stir just enough to combine. Gently stir in the nuts. Spoon batter into muffin cups; fill each cup about 3/4ths full. Place in oven. Bake approximately 25 minutes or until lightly browned and the muffins spring back when lightly touched.
A Hundred Years Ago 
Lovely terminology: ‘nut meats’. Very descriptive!
I agree – The old-time terminology is wonderful and very descriptive.
I think I’d enjoy a little more sweetness, but that would be easily enough achieved by stirring in some raisins, dried cherries, or apricot pieces.
Dried fruit would work well in this recipe.
Did you find graham flour at your supermarket or did you have to go elsewhere?
I found it at the supermarket – though it was not at the first one where I looked, and I had to go to a larger store. It definitely is a specialty flour that only some stores carry. I found it in a display of Bob’s Red Mill flours – though I’m sure that there are other brands.
These sound SO good. I once had a wonderful recipe for a quick bread with graham flour, which isn’t easy to find. I’m not sure I still have it, but the flavor was grand.
It’s a lovely recipe if you like muffins that aren’t very sweet. I had to look for the flour at a couple stores before I found it. I see numerous graham flour recipes in hundred-year-old cookbooks. It apparently was a more popular type of flour back then than what it is now. I’m not sure why, because I’ve liked everything that I’ve ever made using graham flour.
Agreed–coffee shop muffins are too sweet…but then so is most everything commercially made these days. I wish I had one to go with my coffee right now. 🙂
I agree- so many commercially prepared foods today seem overly sweet. Apparently sweet sells – though it seems a little sad that people are so addicted to sugar and other sweets.
Molasses in them!😋 did you use a dark or lighter molasses?
I used a lighter molasses. The molasses flavor in the muffins was very mild. If you like a stronger molasses flavor, I think that dark would also work in this recipe.
I would love these. These are what I called muffins before the muffin industry was overtaken by sugar! Like you, I find modern muffins far too sugary.
They’re tasty.
I adore muffins, and agree that the sugar industry hijacked one of my favorite ways to start the day. I’ve long been making my own, and this is a nice change in my repertoire. Since I am (mostly) vegan, I’d substitute coconut oil for butter and make a flax egg. Thanks for mentioning Bob’s, as I was wondering too about graham flour. We have a discount store that always has Bob’s products, probably approaching the end of their shelf-life as stamped, but I pay no mind 🙂 It goes fast, anyways.
It’s wonderful that you have a discount option. The various specialty flours can be so pricey.
I agree! Muffins aren’t healthy if they’re packed with lots of extra sugar. Thanks for sharing a recipe that doesn’t have so much!
I think that you’d enjoy them.
We eat way too much sugar. I’m all for less sugar in a muffin. Otherwise, it’s a cupcake.
I like it. I hadn’t thought about it exactly that way, but you’re absolutely right – a sugary muffin really is a cupcake without frosting.
These look lovely. I have a recipe for graham bread that the kids liked ok.
If your kids liked graham bread (and it wasn’t a sugary type of bread), I think that they’d like these muffins.
I don’t like those super sugary muffins at coffee shops either.
Sometimes I wonder why coffee shops often seem to have only sugary foods. Everyone talks so much about healthy eating, yet obviously sugary foods are what sells best.
This looks like a great grans recipe but what is graham flour?
Graham flour is a coarse whole wheat flour that is not sifted. It has an interesting history and was named after a diet reform advocate from the 1800s. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia page about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_flour
Thanks! In Belgium, every organic wholewheat flour is not sifted. Thanks!