Cherry Bran Muffins – Hearty bran muffins are loaded with dried cherries to make for a yummy (and healthy!) breakfast.
It’s brunch season! With Easter coming up and then Mother’s Day soon after, all of us will be spending more time with family. And most likely, we’ll be spending that time eating brunch.
To help you assemble a well-rounded menu for those brunches, I’ve got great recipes coming up this month. The first one is for a hearty breakfast muffin- my Cherry Bran Muffins! They are slightly sweet and soft but also loaded with fiber and healthy bran cereal. But don’t worry – the cereal is ground down to make a flour so there won’t be any crunchy bran pieces in these muffins.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at these Cherry Bran Muffins!
Bran cereal
These muffins are made with bran cereal. I couldn’t easily find bran flour but I found that ground up bran cereal works just as well. Simply use a food processor to grind it up into crumbs.
Making these muffins
Once the bran cereal is ground up, it’s mixed with the dry ingredients and chopped dried cherries. The wet ingredients are mixed separately and then slowly folded into the dry ingredients.
We mix the batter this way to mix the dry and wet ingredients as little as possible, while also ensuring the batter is combined. Mixing the batter too much will develop the gluten and create a tough texture in the muffins. We don’t want that.
Baking the muffins
The batter is scooped into muffin tins and then topped with a sprinkle of old-fashioned oats. This step is optional but I love the look of the oats on top so I had to do it.
Finally, they’re baked for about 20 minutes or until the center is done.
Tips & Tricks
- Do not overmix! Too much mixing will lead to tough muffins.
- Buttermilk is important. The buttermilk reacts with the baking powder to create the perfect height and texture in these muffins. So it cannot be substituted out.
- Old-fashioned oats. Only use old-fashioned oats for topping the muffins. Instant oats are chopped oats so they don’t give the same look as the whole, old-fashioned oats.
Cherry Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups bran cereal
- 1¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped dried cherries
- 1¼ cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup canola oil
- 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Set aside. Place bran cereal in a food processor and pulse until cereal is turned into fine crumbs. Add to a large bowl.
- Add flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to the large bowl with the bran crumbs and whisk together. Add chopped dried cherries and toss together. In a small bowl, whisk egg, oil, and buttermilk. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Fold all ingredients together gently and slowly, being careful not to overmix!
- Scoop batter into prepared cupcake tins so that each cupcake tin is completely full. Sprinkle a few oats over each muffin tin of batter. Press on the oats so they lay flat on the batter. Place into preheated oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center muffin.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before eating. Muffins are best eaten the day they are made, however, they can be frozen for up to 3 months to eat at a later time. Reheat them in the microwave for 30 seconds to thaw them.
Notes
Pin for later:
More recipes you’ll love:
Carrot Raisin Muffins
Pumpkin Cinnamon Crunch Muffins
Blueberry Muffin Tops
Made these twice already this week! They are delicious and my husband eats three of them for breakfast 😀 Wonderful recipe, thanks!
Woah, sounds really good!! Can’t wait ti give this a try these days.
What a great way to use cherries. This sound like a delicious way to start the day too.
We love muffins for breakfast. This particular flavor combination is a hit with my family, so they will be in our muffin rotations from now on.
These look delicious for a breakfast on the go, I am a fan of anything cherry and really should eat more bran these days!
Ohh I can’t wait to try these cherry bran muffins. I bet the flavors are so good together.
I love healthy delights! This is perfect for my coffee to go!