Bran Muffins

There was a good period of time where every morning I would go to a local coffee place, buy a muffin and a mocha, and get on with my day. These were fine days, but expensive and probably not all that healthy for me.

Instead, now we have a ritual where we make a bunch of what are known as s-week bran muffins, because the batter can apparently be kept for six weeks without going bad, and we bake a batch every day and a half or so. Each of us as two muffins and a cappuccino for breakfast, and we go about our way with more money in our pocket, less time wasted in line at the coffee store, and with plenty of whole grain goodness in us (or at least bran goodness, I suppose).

You make the batter at least the night before; it requires an overnight rest in the fridge before it's ready to be muffinized. The procedure is simple, and is really the Muffin Method, as you can imagine. The Muffin Method is: mix dry; mix wet; combine wet and dry until just mixed. In this instance, sugar counts as a dry ingredient.

In a Big Ol' Bowl, mix your flour:

Sugar:

Baking soda:

Spices:

And bran flakes (you can certainly use raisin bran, if that's your thing. We do not.):

And stir. If you have a flour stirrer, all the better, but I wouldn't run out to get one just for this:

until well combined. In a glass container, mix your oil:

AYFS Spiced Rum Vanilla Extract (or whatever vanilla extract you have. Heck, we've even used almond extract before):

Eggs:

And mix to combine and break up the egg:

Add the egg mixture and the buttermilk to the dry team:

And mix:

Until combined:

Set this aside in the refrigerator overnight or longer. When the time is come to bake, use a disher or ice cream scoop to add to lightly-sprayed cupcake papers:

And bake:

Serve and enjoy. There are plenty of variations you co do to this. Add some molasses or maple syrup to the sugar for brown sugar. Play with the spices or extract. Add some dried cranberries, blueberries, or, if you insist, raisins. But this will keep at least a week and apparently six weeks if, and this is important, you don't store it in a metal bowl. It gets weird in a metal bowl after a while. The baked muffins will last at least a day. I wouldn't stretch it too far after baking, though.

Bran Muffins

Ingredients

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 tsp baking soda
• 3 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

• 15 oz Bran Flakes

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbl vanilla extract

• 1 quart buttermilk

Directions (The Muffin Method)

1. Mix flour, baking soda, sugar, spices, and salt.
2. Stir into dry ingredients Bran Flakes.
3. Beat eggs and combine with vegetable oil and vanilla
4. Add egg mixture and buttermilk to dry ingredients.
5. Stir to combine.
6. Refrigerate overnight up to six weeks in a non-metalic container.

Baking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Portion out batter into baking cups in a muffin tin.
3. Bake for 15-20 minutes. The muffin shouldn't give when you press it lightly.

Makes 4 dozen muffins.

Comments

[Yuri]

I love the domed tops! Since this batter has eggs and milk, isn't it risky to leave it in the fridge for weeks?

[Brian]

I think that's one of the benefits of the bran cereal: not only all the sugar, but there are probably sone preservatives in there as well, though I hadn't really thought about it until you asked. It's a little less From Scratch because of that, I will admit, but still much better than store bought muffins.

[meg]

At the bakery where I used to work, we made bran muffin batter every 4 days or so, and it kept beautifully. I couldn't quite wrap my brain around why the leavening didn't wear itself out, but the muffins always turned out lovely and domed. Oh, and we also used strong coffee in our bran muffins--they were divine.