Bran and Prune Muffins
On August 26, 2011 in Baking
If you stop to think about it, making bran muffins is weird. A grain of wheat is made up of the germ, bran and endosperm (the part we refine to make flour). Then we take all that refined flour and add back all of the bran we took out to begin with. Yet it’s never the same as a whole wheat muffin, because bran has a certain natural sweetness and nuttiness to it. Go figure.
I wanted to reinvent the idea of a bran muffin as a boring breakfast for the elderly and constipated a little bit and stumbled upon a great recipe at the Joy of Baking. I tweaked it a little bit, shortening a few steps and ingredients and adding prunes. The end result is a harmony of flavors from my favorite Date Square recipe with all the wholesome goodness of bran.
Bran and Prune Muffin
- 1 1/2 cups (80g) wheat bran
- 1/3 cup boiling water
- 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup (70g) rolled oats
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup prunes, pitted and chopped
- 1 orange, zested and juiced
- 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (205g) brown sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the oven rack positioned in the center. Grease enough muffin tins to make 12 large muffins.
- Combine the wheat bran and boiling water in a large bowl and stir to hydrate. Sift in the flour, mix in the oats, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix to combine, then add the chopped prunes and zest of the orange. Set aside.
- Beat the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one by one, incorporated well after each addition. Add the orange juice, vanilla and milk and beat well.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until incorporated. Do not overmix. Set aside for half an hour to allow the starch to absorb the liquid, then spoon 3/4 full into muffin tins and bake until a toothpick can be inserted into the center and come out clean, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Mmmmm, but yum! Bran is extremely under-rated? Except for that Kellogs product, maybe? Prunes are so wonderful with their natural stickiness and semi soft texture. I try not to clue people in onto them; that the chic status would otherwise bring. … Cheers Jamie.
While typing this, I just realized exactly why Shatner is the perfect spokesman for All Bran. Anyway, other than Shatner, I don’t think people are especially into All Bran, but I have to say I have a soft span for bran-related cereals :)
I recently purchased a deep fryer and one of the things on my (probably entirely too long) list of things to accomplish is recreating my favorite Polish paczki stuffed with prune butter. That flavor is amazing.