Blueberry Bran Muffins

Way back in December, I told you about a yummy Bran Muffin recipe I found.  And while these were really tasty, they were a wee bit on the heavy side.  Ok, so they were a lot heavy.  I think the combination of bran and stone ground wheat flour made them really dense, so ever since I discovered whole wheat pastry flour, I've been dying to try these again.  And am I ever glad I did!

But before I tell you to just sub the pastry version in my original recipe, I have to admit that as hard as I try, it seems as though I am incapable of making only one change at a time.  In this instance my reasoning was purely circumstantial.  First of all, earlier this week I made my favorite Broccoli Slaw recipe which requires a half cup of buttermilk, which left me with 3 1/2 cups to find good uses for!  The other problem was that my brown sugar was hard as a rock (even with my fancy terra cotta thingy in it!), and I know there are all sorts of tricks for fixing that but I just couldn't be bothered for 2 measly tablespoons.

All this means that the resulting muffins are lower in fat and sugar, AND taste better!  As I hoped, they are much lighter.  They are not particularly sweet - they really benefit from the sweetness in the blueberries, so I'd definitely recommend including fruit.  But the texture is really nice, and I personally enjoy the more pure taste of bran.  These are especially delicious warm with a shmear of butter.  I hope you enjoy!

Bran Muffins

adapted from me!

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional)
2 cups low-fat buttermilk or yogurt
1 egg
1/2 cup honey or agave
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup frozen blueberries (optional, or other frozen/dried fruit)

Preheat oven to 425F degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, bran, salt, baking soda and sugar).

In a second larger bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, honey, and butter. Add the dry ingredients and fold in until everything comes just together. Fold in add-ins. Do not overmix!

Either grease a mini-muffin tin (I sprayed with canola oil) or line the tin with small muffin papers. Fill each 3/4 full (mine were filled nearly to the brim). Bake 12 minutes, until muffins are golden on top and cooked through. You can also make larger muffins in a standard size muffin pan, you just need to bake them about 5 minutes longer.

Makes about two dozen mini bran muffins or one dozen larger ones