Sunday, September 19, 2010

Honey Bran Muffins

I have done it!  I recreated the taste of Mimi's Cafe's Honey bran muffins... and they are delicious.

I was thinking the other day that I do not have a whole lot of fiber in my diet.  Knowing the bran is amazingly good for you, I wanted to find a better way to eat it than Raisin Bran (which is gross because I don't like raisins).

Thus the search began for a recipe that would allow me to make delicious bran muffins.  I used to regularly order honey bran muffins at Mimi's... so I figured I would start with that.  There was a post on a forum about Mimi's bran muffins.  I was disappointed that they did not call for honey, but for dark corn syrup.  I decided to tweak the recipe a little since it also called for raisins pureed with water, which doesn't work because:
1) I don't like raisins, and
2) I don't have a blender of any kind in my apartment.

Please note that despite my looking for something "healthy," I must admit that these are basically like candy on the outside.  So other than the bran being good for me, the sugar and fat content is probably rather high.

Here, is my tweaked recipe: (Original found Here)

***

Honey Bran Muffin

Makes 12 regular sized muffins

dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup wheat bran
4 tsp dry milk powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
"liquid" ingredients:
1/3 cup brown sugar (it called for dark, but all I had was light)
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp grated orange zest (the orange flavor is a little overpowering, I'd probably reduce this to 1 Tablespoon or maybe even 2 teaspoons)

Glaze:
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp brown sugar, packed
3 Tbsp butter (very soft or slightly melted - I put this whole mixture on top of the fridge while I did the rest and it worked really well)
2 Tbsp honey
2 tsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Distribute about 1 Tbsp of the Glaze into each of your 12 muffin tins and be sure to coat the bottom and sides of each muffin tin. (I did this just before I mixed the wet and dry ingredients so that the glaze was fairly liquid, and I just spread it evenly between all 12 tins rather than measure)
In a medium bowl (or one with a pour spout) mix all the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl (I didn't do this I just put all the wet ingredients into the middle of the dry ingredients and mixed them all together), mix the "liquid" ingredients.  Stir the liquids into the dry ingredients until just moistened.

Fill muffin tins 2/3 full, bake at 350 for 20min, until a toothpick comes out clean (be sure not to fill the muffins too full because even at 2/3rds they spring up over the tops a little.
Immediately invert the baked muffins onto foil or wax paper to cool.
I put mine on wax paper, and then enjoyed eating the carmelized rings on the muffin tin - if you make them, you'll know what I'm talking about.

 ***

Do you find yourself typing "brain" when you mean to type bran?  I certainly do.

Bran is the hard outer layer of a grain.  Wheat bran can usually be found in the supermarket; and though I have not really looked for them yet, oat and rice bran are also available (rice bran is used in several Japanese recipes). Bran can be milled from any grain: rice, corn, wheat, oats, barley and millet (rice bran comes from the layer that is removed when brown rice becomes white rice).

Apparently, wheat and barley bran do contain gluten (sorry to all of you with celiac disease/sprue). However, rice and corn bran do not contain gluten, and oat bran is somewhere in between.  If you have a mild gluten-intolerance, you might try that. (medicinenet.com)

Bran is REALLY good for you.  Not only does it contain a great amount of dietary fiber, but also essential fatty acids, starch, protein, vitamins and minerals!  Also, it's very filling.

(citations: Wikipedia, Grain picture in the public domain, Google Health, Medicinenet, therecipelink)

28 comments:

  1. Um ... just found your blog via Pinterest, specifically because of this recipe. I can't wait to try it!! No matter when we go to Mimi's, my husband and I always get an oat bran muffin. I've been browsing the rest of your blog, and I like it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Trying these this morning!! YUM!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just made these :D
    I made a few minor changes - made mini muffins instead of standard, only used about 1/4t of orange zest, and used 1/4c milk and 1/4c water instead of the 1/2c water and 4t dry milk.

    They taste AWESOME! I have tried other recipes trying to mimic Mimi's and no one has come as close as you.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks! I'm so glad you liked them! I also made mini-muffins out of these at some point, but I don't think I wrote about them... I'll keep your changes in mind for the next time I make them :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Me again! These taste even better the next day - exact Mimi's replica.
    Thanks again :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for recreating this recipe! I'm really excited to make it. I worked at Mimi's for years and I saw them make these a few times and they'd coat the pan with a caramel sauce, so if you wanted to skip that step i'm sure that would work too in a pinch.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Can I just say, bless you for sharing this recipe. I love Mimi's bran muffins and was so sad when we moved far away from a Mimi's. I'm making these this week!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Found your blog through pinterest while looking for Mimi's Cafe bran muffin recipes. I will definitely have to try these. I am in love with their bran muffins. Our server told us that the recipe included caramel sauce and honey, as well as small pieces of pineapple. Very interesting...

    ReplyDelete
  9. i'm making these now...but am confused...what do you do with the rest of the glaze if you only use 1 tbsp?

    ReplyDelete
  10. The 1 Tbsp measurement is just a guide for distributing the glaze evenly between the 12 muffin cups. It's more important just to distribute all the glaze evenly among the 12 muffin cups (but you should use all of the glaze) Sorry for the confusion :(

    ReplyDelete
  11. thanks-i will do that next time! the glaze makes these tast amazing-wish i had just gone ahead and used ALL of it in the muffin tin :( I have leftovers however, so am trying to figure out what baking to use it on!
    the muffins are fantastic though-just devoured a few now! Mmmmm :))

    ReplyDelete
  12. Just made these this weekend and DEVOURED them. Thanks for the recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I can't wait to try these...My husband and daughter love them and we end up bringing some home each time we visit Mimi's. I tried a recipe last weekend I found online....they didn't taste too bad but looked like dirt clods in the muffin tin when they came out. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Gonna make these this weekend as we are family over ... I sure hope they taste as good as they look !!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh, they do!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What did you use for the wheat bran? All-Bran cereal? Thanks!

      Delete
    2. Sorry for the delay in responding... I use just plain wheat bran, I got it in the bulk goods section of my local health foods store. I don't think a cereal would give you the same results.

      Delete
  16. I loooove this recepie, you have made my boyfriend love me forever! Thank you!!!! One question though.. I would like to make this vegan. It is so close, since there is oil instead of butter in dough, and the milk is easy to replace with almond milk... Does anyone has any idea of how to replace the butter in the glace? I do not like the vegan butter since it is not very healthy... Ideas?? Oil in the glace just seams wrong....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard that Coconut Oil works well as a butter substitute, it could be worth a try :)

      Delete
    2. I used applesauce instead of oil in the muffin mix. But, I did use my vegan butter in the glaze. These aren't exactly healthy anyways,lol. But, they're so good and worth a calorie splurge!

      Delete
  17. Oh my freaking God, these were good! I used to get bran muffins similar to this when I lived in California, and now I live on the opposite side of the world where the two words "bran" and "muffin" have never been adjacent. These are trend-worthy! Thank you thank you thank you! I just made them and still licking my burnt fingers (and sooooo worth it!)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I have not had these since I moved from CA 24 years ago! Saw on Pinterest and cant wait to try this recipe!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Do i have to add powdered milk? Don't want to buy a whole box just for this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can change the 4tsp milk powder and 1/2 cup water to 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup regular milk - should turn out fine.

      Delete
  20. When I was a child I remember eating these at a café in our neighborhood. I am thrilled to find this recipe. Thank you for posting it.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I just made these for breakfast. My family gobbled them right up. But, I substituted and made these vegan friendly!

    ReplyDelete
  22. These are amazing! I’ve made them twice and my whole family loves them. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  23. These are very good, but there is no way that they make 12 regular sized muffins.. 9 at best and that's if you're being conservative. Good recipe though

    ReplyDelete