You’ve heard of Morning Glory Muffins, but how about Early Bird Muffins? These are kind of “healthyish”, and a great way to use up half a can of coconut milk. The recipe comes from the Publix Bran Flakes box. Unlike Morning Glory Muffins, which have carrot & apple, Early Bird Muffins are made with crushed pineapple, banana and bran. And then there’s the coconut milk, which stands in for butter and oil.
The Early Bird Muffins recipe from the Publix Bran Flakes box calls for a full can of coconut milk and makes more than 12 muffins. It’s also a great recipe to halve when you need to use up a half can of coconut milk. For us, that is often since I make a lot of scaled down curry and Thai dishes. So far I’ve only made Early Bird Muffins as half batches or third batches. Improvisations like leaving out the banana and doubling the pineapple have also worked.
The original recipe doesn’t say whether you or not you need to drain the pineapple, so it’s up to you. If you drain it, the muffins will rise a little higher and have a slightly crumblier texture. With the pineapple juice they have less rounded tops and have more moisture. My favorite version is drained, but with a little extra pineapple and banana. These are probably difficult to ruin.
Update: If you want another good use for half a can of coconut milk, try a half batch of the Coconut Cauliflower Curry from A Couple of Cooks.
Recipe
Early Bird Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 very ripe banana mashed with a fork (114 grams)
- 2 cups bran flakes cereal 100 grams
- 1 13.66 oz can coconut milk, regular (not lite)
- 1 large egg 52 grams
- 8 oz can crushed pineapple drained or undrained
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar 100 grams
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 190 grams
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans toast them if you have time
- 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the mashed banana, bran cereal, coconut milk, egg, pineapple, brown sugar and vanilla. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes while you mix together the dry ingredients. You may want to mix it around a little to crush the bran somewhat as it softens.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the flour mixture to the bran cereal mixture and stir just until mixed, then stir in the pecans and coconut.
- Divide the batter among the muffin tins. The recipe says ¾ full, so you should stick with that to be safe. My banana-free/extra-pineapple batter was thicker and I let the batter go almost to the top of the cups.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (mine always take 25) or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The muffins will be very soft and moist at first, but their texture improves a bit as they sit.
Anna
Hi Brenda,
I think you are doing everything just right. I haven’t made these in a while, but next time I make them I’ll take some more notes on the level of lightness. The coconut milk probably makes them a little softer and fluffier than usual muffins. However, if you want a heavier texture you could try using undrained pineapple. I thought it was weird that the original recipe didn’t say to drain it, so maybe they just meant dump it all in. I do have a note at the bottom of the recipe that says using undrained pineapple makes the muffins dense and moist, so that should help.
This a recipe I’ve only made a few times, so now that I know you are interested in it I’ll make it again and answer some more questions. If anyone else out there has an opinion on the texture, let us know. Thanks!
Brenda
Hello, We like the muffins very very much . I am wondering if you can help me as I have made them twice & both times when I put a tooth pick in & out they seemed baked but when I took out of muffin pan they were very lite weight and soft, just not the usual way a muffin feel & they very soft & kinda easy to smash. I must be doing something wrong. Maybe I am not leaving them in the oven long enough but I was concerned about over baking them. . Both times I did use undrained crushed pineapple. Please I hope you can tell what I m doing wrong. First time I thought maybe I had put too much banana in but last batch were the same. Love the recipe ingredients and flavor. Thank you very much.
Anna
Sue, you could try the Russian Black Bread. It calls for All-Bran, but I’ve successfully used Raisin Bran and Bran Flakes.
https://www.cookiemadness.net/2016/09/27/russian-black-bread/
And then of course there’s always the Bran Flakes Buffalo Chip Cookies 🙂 https://www.cookiemadness.net/2019/03/04/buffalo-chip-cookies/
Sue
I like muffins and weirdly prefer the healthy-ish ones over the cakey ones. I would like to try these some day. I wonder if I could get my husband to eat the rest of the box of bran flakes!? Hmm.
Anna
Angie, let me know what you think!
Angie
I actually screamed when I read your post! I have all of the ingredients to make these muffins including a half of a can of coconut milk!!! Stay tuned for the results!!! Thanks!
Anna
Is it wrong to say I hope you fail the challenge?
Stephanie
“Difficult to ruin”? that sounds like a challenge! Thanks.