This afternoon I found a stash of unprocessed wheat bran in the freezer, and since I haven’t made any in a while, I used it yet another good bran muffin recipe. My favorite bran muffin recipe is probably this one from Epicurious, but this one is a close second. It’s adapted from Joy of Baking.
Below is a half batch of the original with some small changes. I used salted butter, soaked the bran in coffee instead of water and doubled the vanilla. Also, instead of baking the batter as needed, I just baked all the muffins at once. These didn’t rise very much, but they were dense and sweet and Fuzz and her friend gobbled them up.
Another Good Bran Muffin Recipe
3/4 cup (38 grams) wheat bran
3 tablespoons (45 ml) hot coffee
4 tablespoons (60 grams) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (105 grams) light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon mild molasses (20 grams)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup (70 grams) all-purpose flour or white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (70 grams) whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup (35 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons (90 ml) milk
6 tablespoons (90 ml) buttermilk or sour milk** — sour by adding 1 tsp. vinegar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a 6 cup muffin pan with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.
Combine bran and coffee. Set aside.
Cream the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer.
Beat in the egg, vanilla and molasses. Beat in the bran.
Mix together the flours, oats, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and powder.
Combine the milk and buttermilk (or soured milk).
Add the flour mixture, alternately with milk, to the bran mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
Fill the muffin cups almost to the top, sprinkle with some oats to garnish (if desired), set pan on a cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.
Makes 8 muffins
Anna
Shannon, thanks for the feedback and the tips on cutting the fat.
Shannon
Thanks for the recipe, Anna! I made these over the weekend with excellent results. They came out moist and flavorful and not overly-sweet or bran-y like some bran muffins are. I did make quite a few changes and thought I’d post a comment for anyone interested…
I wanted to cut back the fat a little, so I used 1 TBSP butter and 3 TBSP applesauce. I also subbed 1/2 tsp almond extract for the vanilla extract, added 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds to the batter, and used all buttermilk instead of the regular milk. I ended up with enough batter for 10 decent sized muffins.
dawn
I think I finally nailed a good Morning Glory muffin, but completely forgot about thinking about adding molasses.
Anywho, these look good. I crave a good healthy muffin for heavy-work mornings.
Sue
These look really good. I’m so glad that Fuzz and her friend liked them!
Katrina
I made these this morning and DID soak the bran in 1/2 cup of gingerbread hot cocoa. Besides using all whole wheat pastry flour, those are my only changes. I filled 12 muffins cups. These muffins are perfectly moist and delicious! The best bran muffins I’ve had.
CookiePie
Those muffins look great — so hearty! I love that there’s coffee in them too. I’d like to try these with oat bran!
Katrina
Ooh, maybe soaking the bran in hot cocoa, now THERE’S an idea! 😉 Seriously though, I just might make these this morning.
Trish
One can never have enough chocolate chip cookie recipes OR bran muffin recipes in my opinion. I too like the coffee idea. Terrific.
Sara
Mmm, these look delicious and I LOVE the idea of soaking the bran in coffee!! Genius.
Elyse
I love a good bran muffins. It’s a sweet treat that you don’t feel too guilty about eating. Great job! I can’t wait to try out this recipe.
Anna
Yeah, I thought of you while I was soaking the bran in coffee ;).
Katrina
Ahh, yum. That’s an interesting concept, to soak the bran in coffee. Still, I’d use water and think these look/sounds great!