Oh, the lowly bran muffin: it can be like eating a scrap of kraft paper, or it can make being semi-virtuous really easy and palatable. Adding more bran and using whole wheat pastry flour and molasses give these muffins a deep, dark depth of flavor. If you want, mix up the batter ahead of time and store it covered in the fridge overnight; set out your muffin tin, liners, and an ice cream scoop before you go to bed, and you can have these warm from the oven on a weekday with very little morning-time effort at all.
1 ½ cups plain soy milk
1 ½ cups bran cereal
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup canola oil
2 tablespoons molasses or maple syrup
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
⅔ cup cane sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
⅔ cup golden raisins
Salty and Sweet Topping (recipe follows)
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl combine the soy milk and bran; let mixture sit for at least 10 minutes. Add the vanilla, canola oil, and molasses and stir. In a separate bowl, sift the all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, salt, light brown sugar, cane sugar, and baking soda. Combine the soy milk mixture and flour mixture; add raisins. Stir until just mixed. Use an ice-cream scoop to portion the batter into the muffin cups; they can be filled almost to level because they won’t rise much. Add the Salty and Sweet Topping to the top of each muffin. Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted into a tester muffin comes out clean with few crumbs.
Makes 12 muffins.
SALTY AND SWEET TOPPING
½ teaspoon sea salt flakes
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy or olive oil margarine
Mix the salt and brown sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle the mixture over each unbaked muffin, along with a dime-size sliver of margarine.
Makes about 2 tablespoons.