Bran Muffins - The Super Healthy Recipe! (2024)

These super healthy bran muffins are extra soft, moist, and perfect for breakfast!

Bran Muffins - The Super Healthy Recipe! (1)

Homemade bran muffins are so delicious and easy to make from scratch, you’ll never need to spend money buying a box mix again.

The wholesome recipe is packed with fiber and nutrition!

And you can freeze leftovers for later, which means the healthy muffins are also a really great option for breakfast meal prep.

Also try these Black Bean Brownies

Bran Muffins - The Super Healthy Recipe! (3)

The best bran muffin recipe

Fluffy good-for-you bran muffins, with no buttermilk required!

The easy classic muffin recipe can be low fat, oil free, vegan, gluten free, soy free, cholesterol free, nut free, high in fiber, and dairy free.

Plus, they use up pantry staple ingredients that you can always keep on hand, no eggs needed. Serve them for breakfast, pack into a lunch box, or prepare the muffins as a kid friendly healthy snack.

Serve them plain or topped with almond butter or peanut butter and strawberry jam, mashed banana, vegan cream cheese, apple butter, or your favorite butter spread.

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Healthy bran muffin ingredients

The flour: The recipe works with spelt flour, white flour, or oat flour. If you’d prefer flourless muffins made with almond meal, try these Keto Muffins.

The bran flakes: Pretty much any bran flake cereal will work here. I buy Whole Foods brand, because it’s free of high fructose corn syrup. All-Bran flakes or Trader Joe’s Organic Bran Flakes are also fine to use.

For gluten free muffins, corn flakes work instead of bran cereals. I haven’t tried buckwheat flakes yet. Oat bran flakes can be used for wheat free muffins.

The sweetener: You can use your favorite granulated sweetener here, including regular sugar, coconut sugar or date sugar, or granulated erythritol for sugar free muffins.

To add nutrition and flavor, I use blackstrap molasses as the liquid sweetener, which is high in iron and calcium. However, you can sub pure maple syrup, agave, honey, or keto syrup if desired.

The yogurt: This actually doesn’t need to be yogurt. I’ve made them with applesauce, roasted mashed sweet potato, vegan yogurt, or mashed banana (really good!).

Or turn them into carrot bran muffins by substituting an equal amount of cooked and then mashed carrot, or make pumpkin bran muffins with canned pumpkin.

The add-ins: The most popular choice is to add half a cup of raisins for raisin bran muffins. Or throw in a handful of shredded coconut, 1-2 tbsp flax or chia seeds, or press a few blueberries into the top of each muffin before baking.

Trending right now: Vegan Banana Bread

How to make bran muffins

Start by gathering all of the ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl, cover the bran flakes with the milk of choice, and let it sit for half an hour. This softens the flakes so your finished muffins will be nice and soft.

Line a muffin tin, and preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Add all remaining ingredients to the large bowl with the bran flakes and milk, and stir to form a muffin batter.

Portion the batter evenly into the lined muffin tin, and bake on the oven’s center rack for 20 minutes or until the muffins have risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out mostly clean.

Let cool. If you cover them loosely overnight, the muffins are sweeter and have a better texture the next day. Thanks to some of the moisture evaporating, the liners peel off easily the next day too (even in the low fat and oil free version).

Many people believe bran muffins are a good choice to help with weight loss or promoting good digestion and preventing constipation, thanks to the insoluble and soluble fiber.

I just like them because they are delicious and their neutral flavor goes well with sweet or savory breakfast options, from scrambles to smoothies (like this Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie).

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Muffin Storage Tips

The bakery style muffins can be left out for a day, loosely covered so extra moisture has a way to escape, ensuring the baked goods won’t get soggy.

For optimum freshness after a day, I like to store the muffins in the refrigerator, in a single layer in an airtight container lined with paper towels. They usually last for three to four days this way.

For longer storage, leftovers can also be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for a month or two. Store in a single layer, or put a layer of parchment in between layers so the bran muffins don’t stick together.

Thaw frozen muffins before eating, either by defrosting overnight or by warming in the microwave or oven.

This yummy eggless muffin recipe will remind you of the old fashioned bran muffin recipe your grandmother used to make!

Above, watch the bran muffin recipe video

Bran Muffins - The Super Healthy Recipe! (7)

The recipe was adapted from my Banana Muffins and Oatmeal Muffins.

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Bran Muffins

These super healthy bran muffins are extra soft, moist, and perfect for a wholesome breakfast!

Bran Muffins - The Super Healthy Recipe! (9)

Leave a Review

Print Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Yield 12 bran muffins

5 from 426 votes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups bran flakes (for gluten free option, see note above)
  • 3/4 cup milk of choice
  • 1/2 cup yogurt, applesauce, pumpkin, or mashed banana
  • 2 tbsp oil or additional milk of choice
  • 2 tbsp molasses (or sub pure maple syrup, honey, or agave)
  • optional 1 tbsp ground flax, for added nutrition
  • 1 1/4 cup spelt, white, or oat flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar (see note above for sugar free)
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • optional 1/2 cup raisins

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, soak bran flakes in the milk for half an hour. Then preheat the oven to 400 F. Whisk all remaining ingredients into the bowl to form a batter. Portion into lined muffin tins, and bake on the center rack for 20 minutes. The muffins taste even better the next day, and liners peel off easily after a day as well.

    View Nutrition Facts

Notes

The muffins are a great breakfast with this Avocado Smoothie.

Have you made this recipe?

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More High Fiber Breakfast Recipes:

Banana Bread In A Mug

Overnight Oats

Keto Blueberry Muffins

Or these Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Vegan Pancakes

Chia Pudding

Chocolate Oatmeal

Green Smoothies

Chocolate Overnight Oats

Applesauce Muffins

Bran Muffins - The Super Healthy Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

Is it okay to eat a bran muffin every day? ›

Bran Muffins

Yes, you'll get a decent dose of fiber thanks to the bran, but larger versions can have more than 400 calories and contain around 13 grams of fat. Also, many store-bought bran muffins actually contain more white flour than fiber-rich bran, while packing unwanted sugar and sodium as well.

What do bran muffins do to your body? ›

The bran muffin is also a good source of bone-building calcium. The benefits don't stop there. “The fiber and cinnamon both support good blood glucose control, while the walnuts contribute health-promoting antioxidants,” says Robarts. Don't miss these other healthy muffin recipes that are also packed with nutrients.

Can Type 2 diabetics eat bran muffins? ›

There are four main categories that you want it to include in your diet while planning for a diabetic diet food list, especially for breakfast. It must contain: Fiber like whole grain bread, whale wheat, bran muffins, and oatmeal varieties. Lean protein like eggs, beans, fish, or nuts.

Can bran muffins help with constipation? ›

Wheat bran has laxative effects that can increase stool volume and bowel frequency. It also contains proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. People use wheat bran for constipation, hemorrhoids, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Is All-Bran good for your bowels? ›

All-Bran original would indeed be our best product for helping with constipation as it contains the most amount of wheat bran fibre (which has been proven to increase stool transit time), however, our bran flakes still contain a sufficient amount of fibre to help with any digestive issues you're having.

Are bran muffins high in sugar? ›

Bran Muffins

Though the bran is likely never to blame in the muffin, the high amount of sugar and canola oil is. In fact, the nutrition-fact panel of a muffin (even a bran muffin) can be 400 to 500 calories, include 40-plus grams of sugar, and show that a muffin is usually worse for you than a chocolate chip cookie.

What is the healthiest type of muffin? ›

Best: Soozy's Grain-Free Match Green Tea Muffin

They're made with whole-food ingredients, including almond flour, whole eggs, and coconut cream. We love that they're a lower-sugar option and don't contain any artificial sweeteners. Plus, the almond flour keeps these low in carbs and high in fiber.

Why don't stores sell bran muffins anymore? ›

Slowly, demand declined, and shops catering to the younger folks stopped stocking bran muffins and started ordering desserts that look like muffins instead. And now it is near impossible to find them in a grocery store.

Who should not eat wheat bran? ›

Wheat bran is highly nutritious and an excellent source of fiber. It may benefit digestive and heart health and could even reduce breast and colon cancer risk. However, it's unsuitable for people with gluten or fructan intolerances, and its phytic acid content may inhibit the absorption of certain minerals.

Is it OK to eat bran every day? ›

Therefore, adding wheat bran to your daily diet can increase your overall fiber intake to help prevent heart disease. As a good source of fiber, wheat bran may help lower total cholesterol and triglycerides, which may decrease your risk of heart disease.

Are bran muffins good for your heart? ›

The oat bran and flaxseed meal contained in these muffins are a great way to lower cholesterol. The flaxseed meal will also give you an omega-3 boost, which may help to prevent heart disease. The muffins are also high in fiber. To increase their fiber content, you can also substitute wheat bran for the oat bran.

Are bran muffins high in cholesterol? ›

Here's the problem with the bran muffin: Although bran can help lower LDL cholesterol, the butter, sugar and eggs aren't doing your LDL levels any favors. While this bran muffin may not raise your cholesterol, it certainly won't help you lower it. And lowering harmful cholesterol levels is what most of us need to do.

What makes a muffin healthy or unhealthy? ›

Signs of a healthy muffin recipe are whole-food ingredients like fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds, eggs, and low-fat milk and yogurt (or a dairy-free alternative). Fats from plant-based oils or moderate amounts of butter can be incorporated into a muffin recipe — remember, you are making 12 servings.

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