Gingerbread Bran Muffins

Soft moist delicious gingerbread muffins that are a great way to use bran. They are super easy to make as well! I'm really happy with how these turned out. However, next time I'll only do the sugar on top or the vanilla glaze, not both. If you do both it's too sweet. Otherwise these are incredible if you love gingerbread!

The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wheat bran or rye bran

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

• 2 1/4 tsp. ground ginger

• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

• 1/2 cup molasses

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 3/4 cup buttermilk

Toppings (optional):

• Coarse sugar or brown sugar

• Vanilla glaze: ~1/2 cup Powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, ~1 Tbsp. milk, pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.

2. Spread the wheat bran evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and bake 8 minutes. Remove and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the toasted bran, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the molasses, vegetable oil, eggs, buttermilk. 

5. Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, just until everything is evenly moistened. Don't overmix. The batter is quite liquid.

6. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups. You can top with coarse sugar (optional).

7. Bake until the tops are puffed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes.

8. Let sit in the pan for 5 minutes then take out to cool completely. You can add vanilla glaze on top if you want them to be sweeter!

9. Serve fresh, or keep at room temperature in an airtight container up to 3 days (they don't go stale quickly) or freezer up to 1 month.

10. 12 servings.

First you toast your bran. This is my rye bran before toasting.

After toasting. It didn't get completely toasted in 8 minutes, but some parts were definitely browned and smelled good.

After mixing the wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls.

After mixing them together. Time to bake!

After dividing the batter and topping with some coarse cane sugar (brown sugar would work too).

After baking! Nice and puffed!

Great!

After icing, which was a bit of an overkill on the sweetness. Next time i'll do either the sugar or the icing, not both.

The original recipe, which I modified, is here: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gingerbread-bran-muffins-3415326