Moist Bran Muffins

5 from 27 votes

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These super moist Bran Muffins are a great way to start off the day. Hearty and filled with healthy things like bran, nuts and raisins. This Bran Muffins recipe is a copycat of the famous Mimi’s Cafe’s bran muffins, the popular US-based restaurant chain that serves French and American food with a cult following across the country!

honey dripping on muffin


Moist Bran Muffins

The secret to keeping this bran muffins recipe SUPER moist is in the use of buttermilk and apple butter.

These are great for breakfast with coffee and some fruit. Eat plain, with a dab of butter or drizzle some honey on top and you are set! If you’re thinking of going the honey route, drizzle it on after you pull them from the oven and let it melt in… so good!

basket of bran muffins

What is Bran?

Bran is the hard outer layer of whole cereal grains such as oats, wheat, rice, and corn and contains protein, iron, fiber, carbohydrates, fatty acids, and other nutrients. Many people associate it with a “healthy” muffin or “good” choice of breakfast cereal with fiber.

I buy the packaged All-Bran cereal to use in this recipe. Super easy and it’s great just on it’s own with milk and maybe some fruit for a light, healthy breakfast.

Can I Make and Freeze these?

This batch should make a dozen large muffins. These can easily be frozen for another time. Just store in an airtight bag or container and freeze.

close up of bran muffin with fork

These Super Moist Bran Muffins are just what you need. Like my Pumpkin Butter All Bran Muffins, these are satisfying and fill you up. If you like bran, try my Date Honey Bran Waffles. Just top with fruit of choice and you are good to go.

I hope you like these as much as I do and bake up a batch today. Enjoy!

honey dripping on bran muffin on white plate

This recipe first appeared here on September 2013 and now has revised photos.

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These Super Moist Buttermilk Bran Muffins are dense, great for breakfast with coffee and some fruit. Drizzle honey on top! Buttermilk and Apple Butter are the secret! keviniscooking.com

Super Moist Bran Muffins

5 from 27 votes
These Buttermilk Bran Muffins are great breakfast muffins to serve with coffee and some fruit. Drizzle honey on top! Buttermilk and Apple Butter are my secret flavor weapons not only for amazing flavor but they keep these moist and tender! A great Mimi's Cafe copycat recipe.
Servings: 12 servings
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Total: 25 minutes

Ingredients 

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 400ËšF.
  • In a large mixing bowl pour boiling water over 1/2 cup bran cereal, mix in oil and set aside. In another bowl mix egg, sugar and buttermilk.
  • To the wet bran mixture add sifted flour, baking soda, salt and remaining dry cup of bran. Add the wet buttermilk mixture to bran mixture and stir.
  • Stir in apple butter, nuts and raisins. Mix thoroughly to incorporate completely.
  • Scoop into 12 muffin (paper lined), or greased muffin pan or baking stoneware and bake for 16-18 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and drizzle with honey (optional) and let cool. Serve as is or with butter.

Notes

  1. I like to make my own apple butter, but feel free to buy 10 ounce jars found in the cooking and jam aisle at your local market – use 3/4 of a cup. 

Nutrition

Calories: 276kcal | Carbohydrates: 41.3g | Protein: 4.9g | Fat: 12.1g | Saturated Fat: 1.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5.8g | Cholesterol: 14.1mg | Sodium: 295.6mg | Fiber: 3.8g | Sugar: 23.6g

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Have You Made This Recipe? Let Me Know on InstagramTag @keviniscooking or tag me #keviniscooking!

Kevin

Whether in the kitchen or on the grill, you’ll find me cooking American favorites with a love for BBQ, Mexican and Tex Mex. I’m passionate about making tasty food because life’s too short to be bland!

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92 Comments

  1. Happy New Year, Kevin!!! YES – I love bran muffins and I could eat apple butter by the spoonful! These are SO perfect for the pre-made freezer meals I’ve been making all week in preparation for baby. Hope you have wonderful weekend – stay dry down there! We’re supposed to get a bunch of rain this weekend… great muffin making weather 🙂

  2. Love the apple butter in these Kevin to make them extra moist! They look like breakfast on Saturday morning to me!

  3. I’m making these this weekend, Kevin! I love bran muffins and you know who loves them even more than me? Hubby! I’m going to make a batch on Sunday so we can have throughout the week. Love the nut and raisin addition in there. Pinned, of course 🙂 Have a lovely weekend!!

    1. They freeze great too. Dave just pulled half a dozen from the freezer! I love the melted honey after taking from the oven. Thanks Dawn!

  4. 5 stars
    great muffins, I did some subs to make healthier, I used melted organic coconut oil, instead of the veg oil, replaced the sugar with half organic maple syrup and organic coconut sugar, I subbed the flour for 1/2 garbanzo bean flour ands 1/2 spelt flour. I didn’t have apple butter but had organic dried apple, just poured boiling water over themt o soften in my vitamix and used that, and didn’t add nuts turned out yummy, thanks Julia

    1. Nice, I’ll have to give your version a try myself! Thanks for sharing and visiting the site Julia. Have a great day.

  5. 5 stars
    We really love these muffins! The first time I made them, they didn’t rise, but then we live in a high altitude area. I added 1 & 1/4 tsp baking powder. Next time I make them I may switch to high altitude flour.

    Thanks again!

    Carolyn

    1. Thanks for stopping by and the comment Carolyn, I especially love the buttermilk in these! I’ve never heard of high altitude flour, I’ll need to check that out.

      1. 5 stars
        I bought high altitude Hungarian enriched flour at the store yesterday. I live near Denver Colorado, the mile high city, I am making the muffins tonight, fingers crossed the flour helps make the muffins rise better so they are pretty like yours.

        Carolyn

      2. Wow, who knew there was such stuff! Let me know how they turn out. Maybe one of these days I’ll make it out to Denver, I hear it’s quite the foodie city. 🙂

      3. Hey! The high altitude flour worked wonders! It made such a difference. Thanks so much for sharing you’r recipe. You are the best!

        Carolyn

      4. Fantastic! Thanks for letting me know about the high altitude flour as well. Have a great day of it. 🙂

  6. Thank you very much Kevin,
    Been erching for that perfect, moist bran muffin for a long time both in bakeries and on line. Love to bake them aat 5 am and then enjoy a coffee, a bran muffin and our home made jams. Ciao

    Hello again Kevin,
    I never write comments but those were a WOW squared!
    Regards,
    Carmine

    1. These definitely work and hit the spot. Thanks for the comment and for visiting my site Carmine. All the best!

  7. Hi Kevin, I’m inspired to try out this recipe, but not sure if I could find apple butter in our local grocery store. What’s another substitute that I could use for apple butter?

    Thanks for sharing!
    Joti.

    1. Hi Joti, thanks for stopping by. You can add 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg to a quart of apple sauce and cook until it reduces and thickens – about 15 minutes. OR you can find it at Walmart or order online from Amazon. I hope this helps.

  8. 5 stars
    These were very good! I loved the addition of the apple butter too. Only thing I did different was add some cinnamon and ground cloves and omit the nuts (so my son would eat them). I wish I didn’t line my muffin tins with paper liners….. these muffins were SO moist that they just stuck to the liners ( we ate them anyway). I made another batch without the liners and they came out perfectly. Thanks for sharing this!

    1. Hi Susannah, so glad you tried them. They’re a house staple around here. I usually bake in stone , but find a muffin liner better than a muffin stuck in a pan! Thanks for the comment and hope to chat again soon.

    1. Hi Carol, thanks for visiting the site! As for the Apple Butter, I use a brand called Tropical Apple Butter and I buy it at a local market chain named Ralphs. You can also find it via Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. It is similar to apple sauce, but condensed, has spices cooked into it and is dark in color due to the cinnamon. I hope this helps.

  9. 5 stars
    Wow, I never expect bran muffins to be moist like these, so I always end up slathering them in butter. These, however, were so tasty and moist, they were great without adding anything.