These stand-out bran muffins – made with wheat flour and wheat bran – are just sweet enough, due in part to pineapple as well as whole and puréed raisins.

Social Learning

It probably goes without saying that you want to distribute the batter among the liners as evenly as reasonably possible. You can use a measuring cup or an ice cream scoop, but I also think you can do a pretty decent job eyeballing it with a soup spoon.

How good a job you do with even distribution will affect each individual muffin’s baking time. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a realistic way of removing a smaller muffin that finishes baking earlier than the others. But if any of the muffins is easy to identify as the largest of them, be sure to use that one as your tester when trying to determine if the muffins are finished baking.

The Backstory

At first, these stand-out bran muffins may not seem to register as sweet, because they’re not sugary. But I firmly feel that they’re sweet enough. They’re just not like the kinds of muffins that are nearly as sweet as cupcakes. So instead of tasting sugar, you are left to focus on the deep, dark, raisins and the flavor of the toasted bran.

Although you don’t taste the pineapple and orange independently, they make the muffins seem almost like carrot cake’s long-lost, mysterious half-cousin who was born in secret, out of wedlock, and whisked away to far-off land as an infant … but then you wind up meeting him as an adult, and although you cannot understand his heavy accent or his strange ways, you know he’s one of yours.

These bran muffins are heavy when you pick them up. But then they don’t seem heavy as you eat them. But then, they do make you feel heavy a few minutes after eating them. So, although you might find that you can easily eat a whole one, you might want to start with half of one, wait a few minutes, and see how satisfied you feel. In that case, should you make regular-sized muffins? No! This is America, damnit! The land of jumbo muffins!

I am a muffin man.

I feel like I’ve been in the closet for a log time and need to come out as someone who likes muffins more than he likes cupcakes. I’ve really tried to love cupcakes. I once even went so far as to eat a “garden salad with ranch” cupcake from a fancy, artisanal cupcake bakery. And that was after trying all the other cupcakes that normally exist. That’s how hard I’ve tried. But I’m a muffin man, and that’s how God made me. The world might as well know. I hope that doesn’t change how you feel about me, and if it does … well, I’m not sure I care.

While I’m sharing, I might as well tell you that in fact, a really good bran muffin would be just about my favorite kind of muffin. I like them at room temperature slathered with soft butter. I also like them gently re-warmed. These partlicular bran muffins, when very warm, have a quasi-custardy quality. It’s a really interesting foil for the bran.

Another way I like them is to split them horizontally, butter the cut sides, and toast them on a griddle. This is such a good way to go for breakfast. Want to throw care to the wind? After toasting them in butter, slather to toasted side with more softened butter as just before eating.

Yogurt

But this is my absolute favorite: remove the paper lining from one of these stand-out bran muffins, place it in a bowl, and heat it in the microwave until just warm, about 15 second on full power. Then, empty a yogurt on top of it. The type with the fruit on the bottom. Don’t stir the yogurt beforehand, that way you’ll wind up with the fruit on top. I’m telling you, this is so good that it’s unbelievable. It has a vibe that rivals molten chocolate cake with whipped cream, but in a good-for-you kind of way. I kid you not, that’s how deliriously indulgent it feels.

I’m exaggerating a bit. But not about this: a muffin of this size and density with a full serving of yogurt is not a snack, nor is it a dessert. You’ll feel as though you’ve eaten a full-blown meal.

 Stand-Out Bran Muffins

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man!, unless otherwise indicated. Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: David Lebovitz, who got them from Nancy Silverton, who got them directly from God. Yes, this recipe is the bastadization of one by Lebovitz, and I do think I by some stroke of dumb luck did improve them. How can this happen? I’m a nobody outsider. And an idiot. Or worse, am I an idiot savant? 

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