“Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength.”
A couple of weeks ago, my husband randomly said You know what I haven’t had in a while? A bran muffin. I then laughed and called him an old man for that, as I do every time he eats Cracklin’ Oat Bran (which I secretly love!). It then got me thinking that he is absolutely right! You just don’t see those as the top muffins at a bakery or coffee shop, or even Costco, so I decided, of course, to get myself some wheat bran and make some of the best bran muffins around!
I am also recently the owner of TWO XL muffin pans, which makes me oh so happy, especially for a muffin like this! I knew that I wanted these babies to be huge as well as moist. Wow, what a sentence. I also knew that they needed a crumb topping, no negotiations there. Slightly sweet, highly spiced, and, here’s the kicker, I threw in some coffee grounds, too! An afternoon pick me up anyone? A perfect addition to your morning coffee or tea? Hell yes.
Ever since coming up with my insane cornbread recipe a few years ago where I use olive oil as the fat, I knew these muffins needed it too, for some extra flavor, moistness, and a little savory aspect to them, and I LOVE it. These muffins are probably the best I’ve come up with yet! The bran isn’t going to clog up your throat, the flavor is anything but dull, and there are so many raisins in these that you can basically tick off a serving of fruit after eating one!
I’m here to help in wheat bran muffins’ comeback, so get yourself ready for this (hopefully) upcoming fall weather with a batch of these muffins, what can I say except you’re welcome?
crumble ingredients
Brown Sugar—4 oz, or ½ C
Coconut Sugar—1.5 oz, or ¼ C
Cinnamon—1 TBL
Salt—1 tsp
Coconut Oil, melted—4 oz, or ½ C + 1 TBL
Flour—7.5 oz, 1 ¼ C
process
In a large bowl, combine the sugars, cinnamon and salt.
Pour in the melted coconut oil and mix to combine.
Add in the flour, mixing until just incorporated. I like to use my hands for this step, as it helps to get larger chunks!
Set aside until ready to use.
muffin ingredients
Brown Sugar—7 oz, or 1 C
Flour—7.5 oz, or 1 ¼ C
Wheat Bran—1.5 oz, or ¾ C
Salt—1 ½ tsp
Baking Powder—2 ½ tsp
Cinnamon—1 TBL
Nutmeg—1 tsp
Coffee, ground—1 TBL
Eggs—2
Milk—8 oz, or 1 C
Olive Oil—4.5 oz, or ½ C
Vanilla Extract—1 tsp
Raisins—5 oz, or 1 C
process
Preheat your oven to 350˚F.
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, bran, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground coffee.
In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, olive oil and vanilla.
Pour into your dry ingredients and mix until it is just combined. Do not overmix, as this will give larger holes in the crumb!
Fold in the raisins.
Either spray muffin pans with nonstick spray or use paper liners and fill each cup ¾ of the way up. I use LARGE muffin tins, so I only got 9 muffins out of this recipe, but if you use the most standard size, you can get about 18.
Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over each of the muffins.
Put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, then rotate the pans, and bake for another 20 minutes. Again, I used larger muffin pans, but with the standard size, start with 12-rotate-12 minutes!
After the allotted baking time, test with a toothpick to see if they are finished baking.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing from the pans.
Bon Appétit!