Honey Bran Blueberry Muffins

There is a resturant around the corner from my work, Brett's Kitchen, and they have THE best bran muffins. I get a blueberry one at least once a week, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 times per week! I've been meaning forever to find a good bran muffin recipe and see if I can come anywhere near recreating these at home. I finally tried a recipe and it was good, but no where near the ones at Brett's. I'll have to try more recipes and see how they turn out! (Maybe I'll stop being a chicken and ask what the secret ingredient is. What's the worst they can say? "No, we can't tell you"?)

These muffins are healthy (I meant to add flax seed but forgot. Damn!) and tasty. I looked up bran (Yes, I know that  Wikipedia isn't official info, but I generally trust it) and found out that "bran is the hard outer layer of grain and consists of combined aleurone and pericarp." "Bran is particularly rich in dietary fibre and omegas and contains significant quantities of starch, protein, vitamins, and dietary minerals."

Yay, bran! The only kind I am able to find though, is cereal. I was hoping for more of a bag of grain, but ended up using Kellogg's All-Bran. I wasn't too happy about this, since there is high fructose corn syrup in it, but what can a girl do? Send me bran and I'll make you some muffins... maybe. :)

I got this recipe off Recipe Zaar.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or vinegar)
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cups all-bran cereal
1 cup blueberries
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
*Add flax for a healthy boost!

I have some delicious honey from an apple farm I went to last fall. It's always solid when I go to use it though, so I have to run hot water over the jar. In this case, I wanted it extra smooth, since I would be mixing it with other ingredients, so I ended up mircowaving it for a bit as well.

Grease muffin tin or use muffin cups (I used cups... less mess and easy out!).

Combine milk and lemon juice, set aside. I used a spoon (I guess you'd call it a holey spoon? It wasn't a slotted spoon, but same effect.) to catch the pesky seeds that were trying to sneak out. Watching Martha Stewart has made me realize that some ingredients can be eyed- you don't always have to use exact measurements.

Beat egg in mixing bowl with a fork; blend in oil, honey, soured milk and vanilla.

Toss blueberries in flour. The recipe doesn't call for this, but it will help the berries to not sink to the bottoms of your muffins.

Stir in cereal and blueberries; set aside.

Combine remaining dry ingredients in another bowl.

 Stir liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. As you can tell, I did this step backwards. I'm not sure if it makes a difference...

 Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling to the top.

 Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes.

I think these are best served warm, with a bit of butter.

 
Check out the low calories and high fiber!
 
 
Serving Size 1 (95g)


Calories 235
Calories from Fat 83 (35%
Dietary Fiber 3.6g 14%

Makes about 10-12 muffins.

Enjoy!