Bran Muffins was a request from my niece who had eaten them some years before, from a mix available in Canada. However we were unable to find such a mix in the UK, so I searched for an appropriate recipe, online. I found one that looked very interesting at Joy of baking .Although I show the recipe below you can also find it here. I do recommend this site, it has some very good recipes, and videos.
As this was early on in my baking life I didn’t take a photo. However I will be making them again soon, so will update this post with a picture. There is a photo on the website, but I will only post photos of my own efforts in this blog.
Bran Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (80 grams) wheat bran
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) boiling water
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (205 grams) light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour
- 1 cup (130 grams) whole wheat pastry flour
- 2/3 cup (70 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) milk
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) buttermilk
Method
- Place the wheat bran in a bowl and stir in the boiling water. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and molasses and beat until well blended. Add the wheat bran and beat until combined.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, oats, cinnamon, orange zest, salt, baking soda and powder.
- In a small bowl combine the milk and buttermilk.
- Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternately with the wet ingredients, in two additions, to the bran mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Cover and place the batter in the refrigerator until well chilled (several hours or even for a day or two)
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place the rack in the centre of the oven. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or else spray with a non-stick vegetable spray.
- Fill the muffin cups, using two spoons or an ice cream scoop, about 3/4 full and bake about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.
- Makes 18 – 20 standard-sized muffins. Note: This mixture made 12 large muffins.
If you cannot find molasses easily you can use black treacle, though Holland and Barrett usually have molasses.
I experimented a little with this recipe. I split the mixture into 3 equal parts before placing it in the refrigerator. One third was just as it was. The second third I mixed in some mashed banana and for the last third I mixed in some juicy raisins. This added some variety, though I had to cook the banana version for a few minutes extra to make sure the extra moisture was fully absorbed.
They all turned out very well indeed.