With Fuzz home for the holidays, she has more time to eat breakfast. I don’t know if that means she will actually eat breakfast, but it doesn’t hurt to tempt her a bit with Sour Cream Bran Muffins. Since Epicurious billed this recipe as “The Rolls Royce of Bran Muffins” I figured I’d try it. Now I wish I’d made these sooner. They are a bit grainy, yet mostly cakey and moist and pretty much like you'd expect to find at a coffee shop.
I’m linking directly to the recipe (link stopped working), but I did make some minor changes (after picture).
-- added 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 teaspoon cinnamon & 1 teaspoon ginger
-- omitted raisins (upon request, though I would have preferred them)
-- made 8 muffins instead of 12 (filled muffin tins almost to top)
Sour Cream Bran Muffins Texture
Sour Cream Bran Muffins are big, soft and extremely moist as opposed to dense and chewy. However, they’re not cupcake-ish whatsoever. They’re bran muffins with mass appeal. Good for house guests, children, special occasions. Not particularly healthful, but they do have fiber.
Recipe
Sour Cream Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour 130 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup wheat bran
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- 1 stick ½ cup unsalted butter, softened (114 grams)
- ¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar 50 grams
- 1 large egg beaten lightly, room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream 240 grams – at room temperature
- ¼ cup dark molasses 80 grams
- ½ cup raisins 75 grams, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter 12 muffin cups or line with paper liners.
- If you haven’t already, bring the egg and sour cream to room temperature.
- Stir or whisk together the flour, the baking soda, the salt, and the bran. If using spices, stir those in too.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the butter and the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, beat in the egg, the sour cream, and the molasses, and stir in the raisins.
- Add flour mixture to sour cream mixture, and stir the batter until it is just combined. (The batter will be lumpy.)
- Spoon the batter into muffin tins and bake the muffins in the middle of a preheated 400°F. oven for 20 minutes. If they are not done in 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 3 to 5.
- Turn the muffins out onto a rack and let them cool.
Anna says
Hi Steph,
Thanks so much for the comment and for reading the blog. I agree with you that these are good muffins. They're kind of a "gateway" muffins to healthy-type muffins ;).
StephB says
I have been an admirer of your blog for some time now and I'm a 'first time commenter, long time looker' and I must say that most all your recipes I've tried (give or take a few) get rave reviews from my BF & co-workers. I was a little reluctant to make such a 'healthy' muffin but OMG its sooo good. I knew it was 'bran' so I was prepared for that taste but I was shocked that the 'bran' taste was just sooo flavorful!! I went with half wheat & half AP flour and followed your suggested tweaks and these muffins turned out soooo good! I agree with Epicurious that these are the 'Rolls Royce' of bran muffins. This recipe is a KEEPER! Readers: you've gotta make these!
Janet says
Thank you for the recipe! I made these today and they are wonderful. I did use the raisins (golden and more than 1/2 cup) and tossed in chopped walnuts. Very good recipe!!!
Anna says
Judy, sorry it took me so long to reply. I'm not sure, really. I don't use a lot of oat bran.
Carole, I think these are sort of healthy but not really....too much butter and sour cream. BUT they have fiber, which is good.
carole says
Who said that healthy can't taste good.
Judy says
Anna, do you think I could substitute oat bran for the miller's bran in the muffins? Thank you.
Sue says
Great idea!! My kids love muffins.
Your almond toffee recipe turned out GREAT!! Thank you! My daughter (who is very conscientious about her eating) is having a very difficult time staying out of it, as is my husband. My son hasn't tried it yet. He's not into nuts, but when he does try it, (and he will) he will love it too.
The chocolate sundae cookies are finished as well. I played with the recipe. I used butter instead of shortening which I often do, and I added some almond extract which was a good addition. I also purposely underbaked them. We'll see how they are tomorrow. Usually they're even better the next day.
JEP says
Mmm...always on the look-out for a new bran muffin recipe---thanks!