A warm bran muffin and a good protein shake is all I need to get moving in the morning. In my quest to find the best recipe, I came across a blog that I'm pretty much obsessed with, Mel's Kitchen Cafe http://www.melskitchencafe.com/ has some of the best and easiest recipes. I love her recipe for refrigerator bran muffins but unfortunately my 14 year old daughter wasn't a fan. To make them more to my daughters liking, I added a glaze to the muffins, this seemed to make all the difference. So now I can make half the pan with the glaze and half the pan without...and everyone's happy.
- 4 cups wheat bran flakes or plain wheat bran
- 2 cups of bran buds or all-bran cereal
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 quart (4 cups) buttermilk
- 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) butter, melted
- ½ cup (no-added sugar) applesauce
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 5 cups whole wheat flour
- 4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Optional Glaze (Use this when making a dozen muffins from the mix)
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
In a large bowl with a tight fitting lid, place the wheat bran flakes (or plain wheat bran) and the bran buds or all-bran. Pour the boiling water over the bran and mix well. Stir every couple of minutes while the mixture cools to room temperature. The mixture will become very thick and sticky.
After the mixture cools, add the buttermilk, melted butter, applesauce, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well to combine all the ingredients together.
The batter can be covered well and kept in the refrigerator for up to 30 days. To bake, scoop the batter into greased or lined muffin tins. Fill 3/4 full. Bake at 375 degrees for about 14-16 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Now these muffins are great as is BUT if you have a family like mine who felt they were a little bland...you can add a little extra sweetness to please them.
Whisk together all the ingredients for the glaze. Evenly distribute the glaze into each of the the muffin tins (I lightly sprayed my tins lightly with cooking spray to make sure the muffins could come out easy), then add your bran batter. Cook as indicated above.
Once the muffins are done cooking (Note: The muffins might spread all over the top of your muffin pan when done...not to worry! Just go ahead and scrape away the extra) flip them over immediately. You can serve them upside down or right side up...delicious either way ;)
If you put the glaze on the muffins, don't use cupcake liners or serve on napkins, it tends to be a little sticky.
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| If you add glaze to the muffins, it's much easier to serve them upside down. |
