These are my favorite bran muffins. The recipe was sent over by my friend Nancy who dubbed them "bakeshop quality" and compared them to those of a muffin store called Little Miss Muffin. I don't think I've ever tried anything from Little Miss Muffin, but the muffins are moist and perfectly sweet.
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Also, they have just the right amount of oil to keep them from being too greasy or too dry. They a little bit grainy, but not to the point where they taste overly healthy. It's the good type of "grainy" I guess.
Lawsuit Muffins
The recipe is adapted from Marcy Goldman, an accomplished recipe developer and author who also happens to be known for her famous “Lawsuit Muffins”. The original recipe appeared in Cook's Illustrated in September 1993.
Favorite Bran Muffins Tips
- My muffins are usually done in exactly 20 minutes. If you find yours are not done in 20 minutes, turn the heat down to 350 and keep baking at a lower temp. If you know your oven runs hot, you may want to bake for only 15 minutes at 400 and then turn down the heat. The point of starting in a hot oven is to get a nice crown.
- Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. If the batter is cold, the carbon dioxide has to work harder to push the batter upward. Also, room temperature ingredients blend better.
- The batter needs at least a few hours in the refrigerator – preferably 8. This is actually a good thing because you can make the batter the night before and make the muffins fresh in the morning.
- The recipe makes about 20 very large muffins, which is way too many for me these days even though they freeze well. I've posted the full recipe, but it's easy to "third" since it calls for 3 eggs.
- If you don't have any wheat germ, you can substitute with more bran.
Here are some pictures of my favorite bran muffins without crowns. This batch was a little flatter because I didn't pile the muffin batter into the cup. I also threw in some bran cereal which kind of weighed things down. For a high capped muffin, everything has to be perfectly balanced.
Recipe
Favorite Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (350 grams)
- 4 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons honey (40 grams)
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 cup light brown sugar plus 2 tablespoons (230 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon maple extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons butter extract optional
- 3 large eggs lightly beaten
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 cup wheat germ
- 1 cup wheat bran, unprocessed type (not the cereal)
- ½ cup whole dates, plumped in water, drained and chopped
- 1 cup dark raisins plumped with scaling water (optional)
Instructions
- Whisk first five ingredients together in a bowl; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk next 7 ingredients together. Whisk in eggs, followed by the buttermilk, wheat germ, and bran. Let batter rest 10 minutes.
- Whisk flour mixture into egg mixture with a heavy duty scraper or rubber spatula, making sure that ingredients at the bottom are incorporated into the batter. Fold in raisins and dates.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill overnight (or for a minimum of 1 hour).
- Preheat oven 400 degrees. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners – you’ll probably only need 20 out of the full 24.
- Spoon batter into muffin tins filling to the top. Put a little water in the 4 empty cups
- Bake muffins for about 15 to 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. Stick a skewer in one muffin to see if it's cooked through, and if not, reduce oven heat to 350 and bake for another 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. In addition, make sure the tops aren't browning too quickly. If tops are browning, lay a piece of foil loosely over the top and reduce heat to 350 as directed.
- Let muffins cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pans
linda says
These are fantastic. I admit that because of all of the ingredients it can be complicated. I add ground flax seed to the recipe aprox. 1/2 to a 1 cup and it doesn't effect the texture at all! The first time I made them I didn't have the maple or butter extract and substituted 1/4 melted butter and 1/4 cup real Vermont maple syrup they were fabulous.
They always rise good and are nice and soft in texture. I do usually have leave them in few extra minutes at the lower heat suggested. Juts plan on that. And don't forget the water!! If you only have 6 cup muffin pans just put boiling water in another pan in the bottom of the oven. I use a twelve cup muffin pan and put a corning ware pan with water in it on the bottom of the over. Tonight I'm making them using half whole wheat flour. I always make a double batch because of the complicated nature of the recipe. Measure and mix the groups of ingredients in separate bowls and then blend together. Good Luck !
vanillasugar says
yeah you have to have raisins with bran muffins and/or morning glories.
i love using wheat germ in my bran muffins, but have to be really careful on the amount as they dry out fast..
so if you like this, then i have to try it. i want to add coconut too.
Stephanie says
Yum! I still haven't found a bran muffin recipe I've loved. I'll have to give this one a try!
janet says
My mouth is watering....why don't you live next door to me so I can run over for a bran muffin to go with my coffee??? lol Thanks for the recipe!
Heather says
So Anna, with all the bran muffins you tried, did you ever try one that was more of a sticky, upside down bran muffin? I've looked for so long for a recipe like this. A local convenience chain sells one in their little bakery case and I like them, but I know home-made would be SO MUCH better. The outside is a sticky,carmelized, almost hard texture , but the inside is like a regular bran muffin. And the shape for sure indicates it is done as an "upside down" muffin.
Judy says
Your muffins are gorgeous - I'm going to have too try them. I added them to my LiveBinder folder.
Kalynskitchen says
Anna, this sounds great. Saving the recipe. Never heard of butter extract, but I'll look for it.
tia @ buttercreambarbie says
I adore Marcy Goldman's recipes!
Anna says
Katrina, Fuzz is the same way. She likes raisins straight out of the box, but she won't eat them in baked goods. I guess it's a texture issue.
Katrina says
Ooh, I'll make these. I have everything for these.
Wait, I don't have maple extract. Do you think I should just leave it out, up the butter extract or use a little maple syrup?
Well, figure this. A few of my kids like when I just give them a box of raisins to eat, but they don't like them in baked goods. Or nuts. They will eat nuts straight up, but don't like them IN things.
Anna says
No, she doesn't like their texture. I put raisins in my muffins and left hers plain. They are even better with the raisins.
Sue says
Does Fuzz like raisins in her muffins? My kids wouldn't have gone for that when they were young.
These look great! I like their crowns.