Delicious Bran Muffins Recipe with Raisins

How to make moist and delicious bran muffins packed with wheat bran, raisins, and applesauce. Jump to the Bran Muffin Recipe or read on to see our tips for making them.

Delicious Bran Muffins Recipe with Raisins

This tasty and moist bran muffin recipe is packed with wheat bran, plump raisins and applesauce. We’ll bake these on a weekend and enjoy them throughout the week for breakfast. They’re easy to make, too! Just 15 minutes of work and you have breakfast for days!

Healthy, Easy Breakfast Recipes That Actually Fill You UpYOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 12 Healthy Breakfasts That Will Fill You Up! Make breakfast a breeze with these 12 healthy and easy recipes! Featuring whole wheat pancakes, protein-packed avocado egg salad, homemade peanut butter and more!

How to Make Moist and Flavorful Bran Muffins

We love these easy bran muffins. They are perfect for waking up to on busy mornings. There’s no fancy equipment necessary for these, you only need a few bowls and a hand mixer.

To make our bran muffins, we beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Then in go a few eggs and lots of flavor from vanilla extract, rich molasses, and applesauce.

For the dry ingredients we combine flour with cinnamon, orange zest, and a little salt. Then we combine the everything together, adding some buttermilk for flavor and moisture. Just before baking we stir in lots of wheat bran and plump raisins. By plump raisins, I mean that instead of just adding regular raisins to the batter, we love plumping them up with hot water first. This way when the muffins have baked, the raisins are soft and juicy.

After about 15 minutes in the oven, you’ll have a moist and flavorful bran muffin.

Peach Muffins RecipeYOU MAY ALSO LIKE: You only need one bowl to make these peach muffins with lightly spiced vanilla batter and ripe juicy peaches. Jump to the Vanilla Peach Muffins Recipe.

Recipe updated, originally posted December 2012. Since posting this in 2012, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne

Delicious Bran Muffins Recipe with Raisins

  • PREP
  • COOK
  • TOTAL

Our tasty and moist bran muffins are packed with wheat bran, plump raisins, and applesauce. We’ll bake these on a weekend and enjoy them throughout the week for breakfast. They’re easy to make — just 15 minutes of work and you have breakfast for days.

Makes approximately 18 muffins

You Will Need

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

2/3 cup boiling water

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses, we use Blackstrap Unsulphured Molasses

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup buttermilk

Directions

  • Prepare Batter
  • 1Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 18 regular-size muffin cups with paper liners.

    2Add wheat bran to a medium bowl then pour in half (1/3 cup) of the hot water. Stir until moistened then set aside. Add the remaining water to another bowl then add the raisins, set aside.Step 1

    3Add butter and sugar to a large bowl then use a hand mixer to beat until creamy and light. Add one egg at a time, beating after each egg until combined. Add molasses, vanilla extract and apple sauce then beat until combined.

    4In another large bowl, use a whisk to combine the flour, cinnamon, orange zest, salt, baking soda and the baking powder. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture then use a hand mixer to beat until combined. Add half of the buttermilk then beat until combined. Repeat with remaining flour mixture and buttermilk, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

    5Drain raisins and gently squeeze dry. Then stir the raisins and wheat bran into the muffin batter.

  • Bake Muffins
  • 1Divide batter between muffin cups. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle and come out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Adam and Joanne's Tips

  • Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste

Nutrition Per Serving Serving Size 1 muffin / Calories 171 / Protein 4 g / Carbohydrate 28 g / Dietary Fiber 3 g / Total Sugars 14 g / Total Fat 6 g / Saturated Fat 4 g / Cholesterol 35 mg
AUTHOR:  Adam and Joanne Gallagher
Inspired Taste Newsletter Signup
21 comments… Leave a Review
  • Linda February 15, 2024, 2:18 pm

    Made these muffins several times. They are scrumptious! I have one every morning with a cup of coffee. Thank you for a delicious muffin recipe.

    Reply
    • Adam February 15, 2024, 2:44 pm

      We are so glad that you enjoyed your muffins 🙂

      Reply
  • Iris Coxist December 10, 2023, 5:23 pm

    Tasty, moist and delicious. I used grated lemon. Very little, but perfect taste.

    Reply
  • Shaila Damji June 2, 2023, 7:07 am

    Is there a way to substitute the molasses? I live in the UK and it’s not easy to find here. Can’t wait to make these!

    Reply
    • Joanne February 15, 2024, 3:04 pm

      Try a dark honey or treacle.

      Reply
  • Lorraine April 13, 2023, 6:33 pm

    made the raisin bran muffins they were excellant! really moist

    Reply
  • Robbyn Coulon February 7, 2023, 5:50 pm

    I was worried about the muffins coming out right. They were delicious. The hint of orange is perfect.

    Reply
  • Shandra February 19, 2019, 6:14 pm

    These were delicious! Used mashed banana instead of applesauce!! Yummy!!!

    Reply
  • Denise April 28, 2018, 6:55 pm

    I’m in 6500 altitude. Suggestions for high altitudes

    Reply
    • Adam May 1, 2018, 1:27 pm

      Hi Denise, You may find the muffins need a little longer to bake. I’d stick with the recipe as written (it’s pretty flexible), but if you feel you need to, you can increase the flour and buttermilk by 1 to 2 tablespoons.

      Reply
  • Janice Hayes April 10, 2018, 12:46 pm

    I did make them. And I was wrong about the omission of baking soda from the ingredients list. The muffins were perfectly delicious. I’ll do this one again and again

    Reply
  • Donna February 21, 2018, 6:39 pm

    Delicious muffins very light with a taste of orange

    Reply
  • Sandy February 11, 2017, 10:56 pm

    Any suggestions on how best to make these mini muffins?

    Reply
    • Joanne February 22, 2017, 1:51 pm

      Hi Sandy, Use a mini muffin tin. The bake time will be less so keep an eye on them. I’d check at 8 minutes, but expect they will take around 10 minutes to bake.

      Reply
  • Tammy November 12, 2016, 9:10 pm

    These are the BEST moist muffins!! I have made them twice for our church breakfast and everyone wants the recipe. They are the best I have ever made.

    Reply
  • LK October 8, 2014, 1:33 pm

    I would Iike to make these into raisin carrot muffins. How would you recommend I do that?

    Reply
    • Joanne October 23, 2014, 11:51 am

      We’d try just adding some grated carrot — the recipe should not need to change much at all.

      Reply
  • e January 28, 2014, 11:05 pm

    can we have printer friendly………please?….’sound great ,cant wait!

    Reply
    • Joanne January 30, 2014, 12:24 pm

      There is a grey “Print” button located in the recipe box (where we state ingredients and directions). By clicking that, you will be directed to a printer-friendly recipe.

      Reply
    • Michelle July 21, 2023, 4:25 pm

      How many jumbo muffins does this recipe make.

      Reply
      • Joanne February 15, 2024, 3:05 pm

        I’d think 9 to 12

        Reply

Leave a Reply

Leave a Review

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe!

 

All comments are moderated before appearing on the site. Thank you so much for waiting. First time commenting? Please review our comment guidelines. You must be at least 16 years old to post a comment. All comments are governed by our Privacy Policy & Terms.

Previous Post: Next Post: