Bran Muffins were always and still are my favorite muffin!
Even when I was young people would tell me “those are old people muffins!”
Well now I’m old people! So it’s perfect!
This is another recipe straight out of my bakery!
Vegan Bran Muffins with a hint of orange zest
And very low in fat, almost non existent in fat!
(well except for the salty vegan butter I slather on each one!)
Studded with raisins galore for all the raisin haters
(Yes of course you can leave them out, party pooper!)
And a hint of orange zest for that extra somethin’ somethin’!
(yes you can leave that out too~ double party pooper!)
No affiliation with any product or company linked below, solely for visual reference
Notes for Success
Replacing the granulated sugar listed below with your favorite sugar free sub is fine
But molasses is the essential ingredient for bran muffins so I would not recommend to replace that!
Many people ask what can replace molasses but this is one ingredient that is near impossible to replace
Of course you can use golden syrup or maple syrup instead but you will never replicate the deep rich flavor of molasses
The original recipe called for 7 Tablespoons of oil
However I like to use half applesauce in place of some of the oil
Feel free to use all applesauce or all oil instead
Be sure you are using wheat bran not bran cereal and not wheat flour as these are completely different ingredients
This recipe makes 16 smaller standard sized muffins
Or 8 Jumbo Muffins
Vegan Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 10 Tbs Granulated Sugar 140g
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 3 Tbs Vegetable Oil 45ml
- 4 Tbs Applesauce 60g
- ½ cup Molasses 118ml
- 2 cups Plant Milk 474ml
- 1¾ cups Wheat Bran 140g
- 2¼ cups All Purpose Flour 280g
- 1½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1½ cups Raisins
- 1 Tbs Orange Zest *optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ then grease your muffin tins (I prefer to make low fat muffins without paper liners since they tend to stick to the paper, if you prefer to use paper liners lightly spray the inside of each one before adding the batter)
- In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, oil, applesauce, salt, molasses, plant milk & optional orange zest. Whisk thoroughly
- Add the flour, wheat bran, baking soda & powder and whisk smooth
- Add the raisins and fold through the batter evenly
- Portion the batter equally amongst 16 standard muffins or make 8 jumbo muffins
- Sprinkle of rolled oats on top of each one is optional
- Bake the standard sized muffins for 20-22 minutes or until they are springy to the touch when you gently press the centers. The jumbo muffins will take much longer approximately 32-37 minutes so I like to turn the oven temperature down to 300℉ for the last 15 or 20 minutes of baking to avoid them getting too brown on top
Notes
Gretchen, you are a gem! Having wheat bran on my oatmeal is very good but
having Bran Muffins with raisins is outstanding!! Thank you for blessing us with so many delicious recipes! Bravo!
YAY! Thank you too!
Hi G?retchen,
I have had bran muffins on my mind recently and here you are.
Can oat bran be used instead of wheat bran with the same success?
And, could I use a different flour than all purpose?
I do love raisins though!
Thanks for your thoughts.
Robin
Hi Robin, Yes you can use a whole wheat pastry flour although whole wheat flours absorb more liquids than regular flour. As for the oat bran, yes you can change it 1:1 but be aware that oat bran absorbs also more liquid. So THAT is combination with the whole wheat flour could (and will) result in a much tighter & more dry muffin. Not to mention this is already a very low oil recipes, So in order for you to be able to swallow those muffins without choking! LOL You will definitely have to adjust the liquids UP and/or the flour/oat bran DOWN.
So the moral of the story is yes you can certainly make those changes but not without adjusting some others things to compensate. Or sometimes we are just better off finding a recipe that suits your specific needs 🙂
Wow and more WOW!!! This muffin pic came across one of my feeds yesterday and the pic was worth 1000 words. I can’t remember the last time I had a bran muffin? Fond memories sitting with my grandma such a longgggg time ago learning to love bran muffins WITH raisin and yep butter like your pic too. I loved reading your comment about ‘old’ people muffins. I couldn’t wait to make these, followed your recipe exact and muffin perfection happened! I made jumbo size and thank you for including extra directions. I have never been able to bake a really ‘consistent’ jumbo muffin but your tips just made all the difference. Only downfall is I ate two (with plant butter) instead of dinner, best bran muffin I ever had!
Thanks Dana! What a wonderful review! Thank you for sharing your memories with us & I am so happy you loved the muffins! Me too, I just finished off my jumbo batch of 8 last night! LOL
Still cranking out these muffins. I’m embarrassed to tell you how many times I’ve made them since discovering recipe. I am SHARING with friends and co workers though. Everyone loves them:). Today, I have some frozen berries I need to use up so am going to try incorporating them. Anyway – the wheat bran I am using (Bob’s) has a note on the back of package to toast before using. I have not been doing that and muffins are wonderful. I’m assuming that is if you are using the product on cereal right out of package or anything like that. Any thoughts on baking? Should you toast? I know I love to toast nuts before using them in recipes because I believe it adds to flavor so wondering about the muffins? I don’t think they could get any better though?
Hahaha! That’s awesome! I ate way more than my fair share for the first 2 weeks after developing the recipe! 😀
I do not toast the wheat bran. I have not in all my baking years ever done that before adding to a recipe.
Curious to see if there is a benefit though!