All-Bran Muffins

We’re getting to that age where you have to start thinking about fiber - and a great way to get that fiber is to start the day off with a healthy breakfast!

This healthy bran muffin recipe has become a favorite recipe for my husband.

He LOVES the flavours from all of the standard fiber options in general - wheat germ, bran cereals, flax meal, etc, so this delicious bran muffin recipe is right up his alley.

What makes this the best bran muffins recipe - IMHO - is the use of apple sauce. Not only does it add flavour - and a subtle sweeteness - it adds and retains moisture.

These are nothing like the dry bran muffins you may be used to from your local bakery!

It’s a wonderful recipe on its own, but is also a great base recipe to customize to your heart’s content.

The flavours are great, while not being overpowering. They work well with all kinds of traditional “all ins” for muffins. You can even divide the batter - 2, 3, or 4 equal portions - and use different add-ins for each portion!

It’s the best recipe for when you know you want muffins, but aren’t sure what kind - just add alllll of the things!

More on those options in a bit, though!

Anyway, the next time you’re looking for a healthy recipes to serve for breakfast, consider whipping up a batch of these.

Split open a warm muffin, straight from the oven, hit it with a little butter - heavenly!

Ingredients

These homemade bran muffins take only a few basic ingredients to make, all of which should be available at your favourite grocery store.

All-Bran Cereal

Bran cereal is the key ingredient for these healthy bran muffins, and it’s what brings lots of fiber to the recipe.

I originally developed this bran muffins recipe using traditional All-bran cereal, but that hasn’t been in-stock at my grocery store lately, so I’ve converted it to use Bran Buds instead.

You can use either one. If using the buds, you’ll use 1 ½ cups. If the traditional kind, use 2 cups.

I haven’t tried converting it to use bran flakes, but I suspect it would work - I’d probably use 2.5 cups.

Applesauce

The use of apple sauce is what makes these moist bran muffins - it works in combination with the cereal to retain moisture as the muffins bake.

You can use sweetened or unsweetened applesauce, depending on your taste and dietary needs. It’s not an overly sweet recipe, so if you like a bit of extra sweetness, applesauce can be a good way to do that.

Apple butter works as well, I just tend to default to applesauce as it’s cheap and convenient!

Milk

You can use actual milk - I’ll usually use skim milk when using dairy milk in it - but alternative milks work just as well.

Almond milk is a particularly good substitute, but coconut, soy, oat, flax, and/or hemp milk are all fantastic options as well.

Fat

I tend to alternate between using melted butter or vegetable oil. Butter tastes better, vegetable oil doesn’t have any cholesterol.
Sometimes I’ll just use the oil out of pure laziness.

I have no problem with making muffins, but sometimes that extra step of melting butter separately just annoys me!

Melted coconut oil also works.

Everything Else

All purpose flour
Brown sugar
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Vanilla extract
Egg

Technique

This is a quick pictorial walk through, see the recipe card at the end of this post for the full recipe!

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line 12 muffin cups with liners, or spray with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together applesauce, milk, oil (or melted butter), egg, and vanilla extract. Add cereal to the wet ingredients in the large bowl, stirring to combine.

Allow to stand for 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl - I tend to use a medium bowl - combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

Add this flour mixture to the bowl with the cereal mixture, stir just until moistened (muffin batter should be lumpy.)

Use an ice cream scoop or small measuring cup to portion batter between 12 prepared muffin cups, filling each to almost full.

Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.

Cool baked muffins in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm.

Leftover muffins can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days - just let them cool to room temperature before storing them!

All-Bran Muffin Variations

While we love these muffins just as they are, they’re also super customizable.

The bran muffin base makes for a nice, relatively neutral background for almost anything you’d like to add to it. A few ideas:

- Add 1 cup of raisins (or more!) For raisin bran muffins.

- In addition to raisins, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, nuts, and/or Craisins all make great additions. Try them alone, or mix and match them!

- Swap the milk for buttermilk for an easy buttermilk bran muffins recipe. No buttermilk? Add 1 ½ teaspoons of lemon juice to the ½ cup of regular milk for a quick buttermilk substitute!

- For a lower cholesterol version, you can swap the 1 large egg out for 2 egg whites. Use vegetable oil instead of butter.

- For banana muffins, swap the apple sauce out for mashed banana - 2 large, ripe ones - and increase the milk to ⅔ cup.

- Spice it up! Use 1-2 teaspoon of apple pie spice, cinnamon, or a mix of your favourite “warm” spices.

- This recipe makes fantastic blueberry muffins. Just add 1 ½ cups of blueberries to the batter after it’s mixed.

- Add a bit of fresh orange zest to the wet ingredients. (Especially if you’re using Craisins!)

- Sprinkle some Sugar in the Raw on top of the muffins before baking.

- For mini muffins, portion batter out by the Tablespoon into greased or lined mini muffin tins and bake for 10-12 minutes. Keep an eye on them - the baking time will vary wildly based on the type of pan used.

More Muffin Recipes!

Are you a fellow fan of muffins? I have some more marvellous muffin recipes for you!

Apple Blueberry Muffins
Banana Nut Muffins
Breakfast Corn Muffins
Cardamom Pear Streusel Muffins
Carrot Cake Muffins
Cranberry Orange Pistachio Muffins
Cream Cheese Stuffed "Everything" Muffins
Eggless Banana Muffins
Gingerbread Muffins
Healthier Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Maple Pumpkin Spiced Muffins
Nutmeg Coffee Cake Muffins
Orange Almond and Date Muffins
Peach Cobbler Muffins
Pina Colada Muffins
Stuffed Banana Nutella Muffins
Sweet Potato Muffins

Also, be sure to check out our Breakfast and Brunch Recipes section for all kinds of great recipes!

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