Every so often, I take stock of my pantry and try to make recipes calling for ingredients that I’ve had lying around. One of these forgotten ingredients I discovered recently was bran cereal. My sister-in-law regularly makes bran muffins from Raisin Bran, so I decided to make blueberry muffins out of plain bran flakes.
The result, as my 5-year-old said, was “delicious.” I even used half whole wheat flour and my kids loved it. I think part of the secret to getting kids to love what you cook is to have them help you out. I had both of my boys (ages 2 and 5) help with various tasks like measuring, stirring, crushing the bran flakes and pouring the batter into the muffin tins.
I often find ways that recipes can be improved, so I baked these blueberry bran muffins a few times this week, tweaking the recipe with each batch until I settled on a truly scrumptious recipe. It was a great way to use up some bran flakes that no one was eating in our pantry!
Although local blueberry season is still a few months away, we are getting some AMAZING blueberries right now out of Florida. Blueberries are one thing I try to keep on hand at all times – they are a perfect addition to breakfast cereal, pancakes or muffins. They also make the perfect healthy snack since they are low in calories but high in nutrients, with a cup of blueberries supplying 25% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin C! They are also believed to have the highest levels of antioxidants of any fruit or vegetable. That’s good news, as antioxidants may play a role in preventing certain kinds of cancer! Whether you like to eat blueberries for their health benefits or for their taste, we are sure you’ll be as happy as we are about the latest batch of Florida blueberries in our market!
We also carry a few kinds of flour as well as the milk and eggs called for in this healthy blueberry bran muffin recipe. Pick up some blueberries and try the recipe today!
Blueberry Bran Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 35 mins
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
- 3 cups plain bran flakes* (like Total)
- ¾ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup oil or butter
- 1 cup buttermilk* (milk plus 1 tbsp vinegar)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- About 3 tbsp raw cane sugar (for sprinkling)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Measure out the 3 cups of bran flakes and then finely crush them by hand or in a food processor. In a large bowl, mix the crushed bran flakes in with the flour and brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix the oil, buttermilk, egg and vanilla extract. Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients. Fold the blueberries into the batter mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined. For best results, refrigerate the batter for a few hours prior to serving to allow the bran cereal to break down.
- Line a muffin tin with muffin paper liners. Add a few spoonfuls of the batter into each muffin liner until it is at least 3/4 full. Sprinkle with cane sugar.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven, cool and serve.