Oven-Ready Bran Muffins

I bought this box of wheat bran with the intention to sneak in some extra fiber here and there in my family's diet.  When I brought it home I realized it had a bran muffin recipe on the back.  I LOVE bran muffins.  I love whole grains and prefer bran muffins over any other type of muffin.  My family thinks this is weird.  Maybe it is.  They like the other type of muffins.  The extra sweet ones that are really like eating cupcakes for breakfast.  I decided I was going to try this recipe anyway and see if anyone else would enjoy some bran muffins with me.  I still have hope that someday I will convert them over to whole grains.

Ingredients

3 cups Hodgson Mill Unprocessed Wheat Bran 

1 cup boiling water

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups buttermilk

Directions

Mix 1 cup wheat bran with 1 cup boiling water; stir and let water absorb into bran.  In a separate bowl blend sugar and butter.  Measure and combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Combine the moist bran with the beaten eggs, the remaining two cups of bran, buttermilk, blended sugar-butter mixture, and flour, soda and salt mixture.  Stir until well blended.

Place in the refrigerator for future use, or bake at once.  When preparing to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Stir batter well and spoon into prepared muffin tins.  Bake 15 minutes.  Keep remaining mixture in airtight container for 2 to 4 weeks.  Yield: 2 dozen

I followed the recipe with one change.  I didn't have any buttermilk, so I made some sour milk as a substitution.  I found this recipe for sour milk and followed it.  I used 2 cups whole milk and 2 tsp. lemon juice.  After the batter was mixed, I lined my muffin tins with paper baking cups and filled them 2/3 full.  I immediately baked a dozen muffins for 17 minutes.  I poured the extra batter into an airtight container and put it in the refrigerator for another day.

The Results...
Did anyone else enjoy these?  Did I have to eat a whole batch of bran muffins all by myself?  That wouldn't feel good the next day!  I did get everyone to eat at least one.  They said they were OK.  No one went for seconds, except my little 2 year-old.  She called them "cupcakes."  I'm not sure if she wanted another one because they were baked in pretty, pink paper cups or because she enjoys bran muffins as much as I do?  I'm just glad someone else appreciated them.  As for the rest of the family, it's back to my original plan to find ways to sneak in a little extra fiber here and there.