Bran Muffins

Ahhh...the autumn weather is settling in...it's time to share the recipe for

my favorite bran muffins!

 Now before you turn up your nose at bran muffins, you have to know that...
1) these little guys are packed with beautiful fiber and...
2) they are delicious! My family has loved them for years. They are light, fluffy, and moist, not dry and heavy and nasty like store-bought bran muffins. (And they have more fiber than store-bought bran muffins, too!)

There are a couple of tricks to making them turn out so yummy, so I've made a little tutorial.

First of all, go add these three ingredients to your shopping list, if you don't already have them in the cupboard. If your grocery store has a bulk section, the whole wheat flour and wheat bran are much cheaper to buy in bulk.

whole wheat flour

wheat bran

molasses

Kathy's Bran Muffins

Oven 350

120 calories/muffin

3.5 grams fiber/muffin
Yield: 18 muffins

Ingredients

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 cups milk (nonfat or 1%)

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoons soda

1/2 cup molasses

3 tablespoons applesauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then you will make the muffins in 3 easy steps.

Step 1: Sour the milk

You have to make the milk sour so the muffins will rise. The sour milk will react with the baking soda.

Measure 2 tablespoons vinegar into the bottom of a 4-cup measuring cup. Then add milk to make 2 cups. 

Give it a little stir and then set the milk mixture aside for 8-10 minutes.

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients
Measure and combine the whole wheat flour, wheat bran, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Stir them up so everything is evenly mixed.

Step 3: Finish the wet ingredients
Add the molasses and applesauce to the sour milk (after about 8 minutes of souring time) and stir them all together.

Make sure the molasses isn't stuck on the bottom of the milk, and then add all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir gently until all dry ingredients are evenly moistened. (The batter will be quite wet.)

Spoon into 18 muffin cups. No papers are needed, but I do like to spray the bottom of the muffin cups very lightly with Pam. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. They are so delicious right out of the oven! They are good as leftovers, too - just pop one in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Writing about the bran muffins has made me hungry for a batch...I think I'll be making bran muffins and soup for dinner tomorrow night. Yum!