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.

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!
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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.
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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.
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.
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
made the raisin bran muffins they were excellant! really moist
I was worried about the muffins coming out right. They were delicious. The hint of orange is perfect.
These were delicious! Used mashed banana instead of applesauce!! Yummy!!!
I’m in 6500 altitude. Suggestions for high altitudes
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.
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
Delicious muffins very light with a taste of orange
Any suggestions on how best to make these mini muffins?
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.
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.
I would Iike to make these into raisin carrot muffins. How would you recommend I do that?
We’d try just adding some grated carrot — the recipe should not need to change much at all.
can we have printer friendly………please?….’sound great ,cant wait!
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.