Tasting Tuesdays: Maple Bran Muffins

How about a muffin!?

I’m gonna be honest with you here… I was reeeal skeptical of this recipe.

I mean. Bran cereal. Unprocessed oat bran. Whole wheat pastry flour. Natural cane sugar. Oof. These things are all very, very healthy.

In fact, the only thing that was recognizable and acceptable to me in this recipe was butter. (And I’m pretty sure it’s the only sweets recipe in this whole book that uses butter instead of coconut oil. Woah! I am not that brave–although the carnival cookies with popcorn, peanuts, chocolate chips was pretty tempting.)

Despite all the healthy grains, I DID like the idea of maple syrup. And I have heard so many great things about Heidi Swanson. So I figured, well–there is still butter in it–so it can’t possibly be THAT bad!

Ooh. Ooh man. These guys are great. They definitely taste healthy–but they are still moist and light, and they have a lovely dense maple aftertaste that just echoes a little bit in the background. It’s not too sweet, it’s not too granola-crunchy-healthful. It is really a perfect in between.

It’s hard to find baked goods with an array of flavors like this–so in my book these muffins are winners. If you happen to have all this healthy stuff in your pantry, by all means make these for breakfast! I know I will be. If not–I bet you could fiddle with a creative adaptation or just invest in the whole wheat bran business. It’s good for you.

My thanks, as always, to the lovely ladies of Milwaukee Anthropologie–who were sweet enough to reschedule this month’s Tasting Tuesdays AND let me come in super early to set up. You guys are stars.

And one more thing… if I type it in a blog post, that means it’s true, right? I think (gulp) I might try making macarons for next month’s event. Eep! Let me know if you have any tips…!

About Tasting Tuesdays
Every month, I bake a recipe from a cookbook sold at the Milwaukee Anthropologie. Stop by–the goodies will be on display for you to try, and I’ll be there, too, camera in hand. I post the featured recipe and photos of the event here on the blog. (Anthropologie pays for groceries for the treats, but I have full control over the cookbook/recipe from their store as well as what I say in my blog posts.)

Maple Bran Muffins
Adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson
Makes 12 full-size muffins or 48 mini muffins

2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or sub plain yogurt)
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter, cooled to room temperature
1/4 cup good maple syrup
1/2 cup unprocessed wheat bran or oat bran
1 1/2 cups plain, lightly sweetened bran cereal
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (NOT whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine-gran sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a muffin pan (your choice of size) with muffin/cupcake papers.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, melted room temperature butter, and maple syrup. Add the bran and cereal and gently stir until just combined. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake for 18-22 minutes for full-size muffins and 8-10 minutes for mini muffins, until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Keeps for 3 days in an airtight container.