- Hey, I'm John Kanell
and today on Preppy Kitchen we're making
some quick and delicious bran muffins.
So let's get started.
First off, set your oven to 375.
We want it nice and toasty for these muffins.
Now, in a big bowl, adding 1 1/2 cups
or 100 grams of wheat bran.
This is the husk of wheat
and it has so much fiber,
but a nice nutty taste as well.
The only thing is it's a little dry,
so we have to hydrate it first.
Perfect.
To turn this dry bran into a delicious muffin,
we're starting off by adding 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk.
Add that right in there.
And the buttermilk does a couple things.
One, it'll soak into the bran
over the course of 10 minutes.
Really soften it up and change it
from being like dry to moist and chewy and amazing.
And, of course, buttermilk has a wonderful tangy taste.
So this muffin will have tons of flavor too.
This is gonna soak for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, we're gonna grab another bowl
and get our dry ingredients together.
Now we're gonna add one cup
or 120 grams of all-purpose flour right into our bowl.
And today, of course, I'm using a scale.
Less cleanup and more accurate.
For a contrast, I want half a teaspoon of salt.
For leavening, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
and half a teaspoon of baking soda.
Lumpy.
Okay, whisk it up.
If you wanted to add some extra flavors,
a little bit of cinnamon in here,
you could add allspice, whatever you'd like.
Think of this as a blank canvas
that can give you so many delicious results.
While that hydrates, 'cause this is all mixed up,
we're gonna grab our muffin tin and some muffin papers.
Lining my muffin tin with papers.
And these guys have like a slight wax coating to them.
So the paper just kind of falls off after baking.
There's no sticking, which,
you know, can be really annoying.
If you wanna just butter the muffin tin, you can do that.
But I've had some experiences of sticking
and it also gives you a little bit
of a harder exterior, which I don't love.
Okay.
At least once,
you'll probably wanna stir your bran up
just to make sure there's no pools of buttermilk
and little hidden bits of dry bran hiding in that bowl.
My bran's all hydrated, however, I forgot the fillings.
The fillings.
So here's the deal.
You could add in so many different things.
Raisins is the go-to.
I'm gonna use golden raisins or sultanas today,
because those are my favorite of the two.
I want about half a cup or 80 grams.
And if you're like, John, I do not like raisins
or golden raisins, you don't have to use them.
You could skip it all together.
You could also use some coconut.
Shredded coconut would be really nice in here,
the sweetened kind, I think.
That would be my choice.
But you could use toasted walnuts, pecans.
So many different things would be just nice in here.
That got mixed in.
Now back to our bran.
I want 1/3 of a cup of vegetable oil.
It's just a little kiss of oil,
and that's gonna give you a pillowy soft muffin.
Just mix that in nicely.
If you're not a fan of vegetable oil,
you could use any neutral oil.
They'll all work.
Okay, one egg.
Mix that in.
I was just thinking that if my mom was watching this video,
she would say,
I would use like a few tablespoons of applesauce
and a few tablespoons of oil so...
You can often sub in a little bit of applesauce
and it'll give you that nice soft, moist muffin
but you still need some fat.
Okay, that looks nice.
Now I want two teaspoons of vanilla.
For a dash of sweetness,
I'm adding 1/2 a cup of brown sugar.
The brown sugar just has that much more
of like a little molasses undertone
and it's gonna be really delicious in these muffins.
1/2 a cup, 110 grams.
Mm. Oh my gosh, it smells so good already.
Stir that in.
I'm just being very gentle so I don't overmix the batter.
I'm gonna add the flour mixture in.
Stir it until it is just combined.
You do not want to overmix your butter.
Batter? Butter?
You don't wanna overmix your batter
because that'll activate the proteins in the flour.
And when your muffins come out of the oven,
they'll look perfect,
but those proteins will yank 'em back down
and you'll have more of a
like a denser gummy texture, not melt in your mouth.
So I'm just folding this in gently.
Ooh, dried currents would work here.
Dried cranberries, so many choices.
Dried cherries.
You can let me know in the comments
if you have an add-in that I should try.
This looks great.
Now we can add our batter into our cupcake tins.
About 1/4 of a cup per paper.
You can finish these muffins off in a couple different ways.
I'm gonna show you at the end.
They're so snackable
and sometimes you just want a grab-and-go breakfast
and these are perfect.
And these muffins, by the way,
I feel are totally underrated.
I've been giving them to the boys for their snacks
and they love them.
For once, I've been conservative with my muffins
and I actually have a little bit
of batter left over to distribute.
Normally I'm overly generous
and I have one muffin that's really tiny.
It's the baby.
You can see, by the way,
how this is a perfect recipe to make with kids.
They would love it.
It's stir together.
It's basically foolproof.
And you can choose different add-ins or toppings.
Just for looks, I'm adding a sprinkle of bran right on top.
It'll give you a little bit of texture
and make them look a bit more interesting.
It's totally optional though.
I want a little dash of sweetness on some of them.
So on half I'm adding just a bit of brown sugar,
like a little tiny crumble.
These guys are ready to go into the oven.
375 for about 20 minutes
or until a toothpick comes out clean.
And wait 'til you see the texture.
I'll show you.
(upbeat music)
Look at this release.
Ah, kinda magic.
And look at this texture.
Oh my gosh, they pull apart and they're pillowy soft.
Hmm!
Mm!
Perfectly sweet,
so soft and fluffy on the inside.
But they have a nice chew to them from the bran
and a nice little nutty depth of flavor.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video, check out my muffin playlist.