What goes good with morning coffee? Lessee, we've done scones, bagels, mini-muffins, and crumpets. It's time to pull out an old recipe for healthy-type muffins. I haven't made these in a loooong time, I forgot how good they are.
Cranberry Bran Muffins
2 cups oat bran
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
Dash salt
1/3 cup brown sugar or honey
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 - 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 - 1 cup dried cranberries (I prefer orange flavored)
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Combine all dry ingredients in large bowl. Add milk, butter, yogurt, vanilla and beaten egg. Mix until creamy.
Stir in cranberries and nuts. See below for variations suggestions.
Spoon into muffin tin, filling cups just to top. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes.
Variations:
I've made these with dates, raisins and mashed bananas instead of cranberries. If you use bananas (especially if they're quite mushy) you might want to cut back a bit on the yogurt. The yogurt is what makes these muffins really moist, but mushy bananas will do the same thing, and you don't want to overkill.
Another tasty variation is blueberries and blueberry yogurt. That's a really yummy combo.
If you want less fat, use 1% or 2% milk and low-fat yogurt.
The recipe makes 24 small muffins (don't fill the cups completely full), but I prefer mondo-ginormous muffins with my morning coffee. So I use the big-size muffin tins, and fill them more than full.
This requires a slightly longer cooking time. The result is ... well ... ginormous. And delicious. Great for brunches, and afternoon tea parties too. Although if I were going to serve these at a tea party, I'd probably make them smaller.
Great recipe! Love the yogurt. I substituted 1/2 cup of flax for 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour ... a great option to boost your omega 3s if you happen to have any lying around.
Posted by: Marko Mircetic | December 19, 2008 at 04:17 PM
Hello, I was looking for a bran cranberry muffin recipe for my daughter who works two jobs and deserves a great muffin, she loves cranberries. I printed this recipe, sounds DELICIOUS... Can I use frozen cranberries?? thank you so much for this great recipe.
Posted by: Monique Larochelle | November 14, 2008 at 04:42 AM
I happened upon your site quite by accident, but this recipe is amazing! I tried it this morning, and it was really hard not to eat them all right away. Yum yum yum!
Posted by: Cecile | August 25, 2007 at 06:08 AM
Your bran muffin recipes are exactly what I was looking for to make good bran muffins. My recipe (on my blog) turned out very heavy.
Keep up the good work.
To see the recipe I used you can go to my blog: Clowns Without Greasepaint
Posted by: Linda Bourgeois | October 30, 2006 at 04:08 PM
Can you use frozen cranberries for these?
Posted by: Eve | October 24, 2006 at 10:24 AM
That's great Keewee! I'm so glad you tried them and liked them. And Mr. C liked them too? The beauty of this recipe is you can add almost anything to make them more to your own taste. :))
Posted by: Christine | October 12, 2005 at 02:27 PM
I made these muffins, and they are as good as they sound.I did use chopped dates and a few raisens instead of cranberries.
Posted by: keewee | October 12, 2005 at 08:17 AM
These muffins sound delicious, I am going to bake a batch. I am trying to get Mr.Completely to eat a little more "healthy" foods.
Posted by: keewee | October 08, 2005 at 09:51 AM