Ever had a Mimi’s Honey Bran Muffin? I haven’t been to Mimi’s in awhile – but I remember those bran muffins and this recipe is a beautiful copycat version! Soft, a little chewy, packed with amazing flavor and gooeyness and oh you might say that they are on the healthy-ish side! WIN!
You know me, I had to tweak the recipe slightly; the original recipe called for 4 tsp dry milk powder — I looked at the grocery store (truly), but honestly I couldn’t be bothered, especially for just 4 tsp, so I did a little math conversion and came up with replacing said milk powder with cream or 1/2 & 1/2 and a little less water and wow did they turn out yummy!
If you are into copycat recipes, you might try my Flour’s Famous Banana Bread or Chipotle Chicken! Both spot on!
How To Make Copycat Bran Muffins
I’m gonna get right to the recipe and steps, because it’s been one of those weeks and I am literally typing this hours before my deadline! Sigh! You all have weeks like that, right?
Preheat oven to 350° and spray muffin tin (12 cup) with spray oil.
Making the Glaze
In a small bowl, whisk your glaze ingredients together and set aside. If using all natural cane sugar, whisk for a bit to break down the larger granules.
In a separate bowl add dry ingredients; flour, wheat bran, sea salt, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk to combine, set aside.
NOTE: I have had some friends use oat bran and they turned out great! On my to-bake list!!
In a bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, mix brown sugar, honey, molasses, and oil and mix on medium speed until smooth.
Add egg, water, cream (or half & half) and (optional) orange zest and mix until incorporated, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.
Slowly add your dry ingredients with mixer on low speed until mixed.
Stir glaze and using a small cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop about 2/3 of a tablespoon of glaze into bottom of each muffin cup, spreading it around and up the sides, this will ensure that distribution of the glaze is even and gets all over that muffin!
Using a medium or large cookie scoop, scoop batter into muffin cups, about 2/3 full, careful to not overfill them, they do overflow a bit, but you don’t want them overflowing onto the bottom of your oven.
Bake for 20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
As soon as they are done, line a cooling rack with a piece of parchment paper and carefully flip the muffin tin over, allowing those beautiful bran muffins to escape. They don’t look like much, but once you invert them — watch out baby!!
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Eat immediately (especially yummy with a pat of butter) or cool and reheat (also with a pat of butter and maybe a drizzle of honey!).
Please enjoy bran responsibly! —————— I crack myself up!!
What’s your favorite go-to muffin recipe? I don’t bake many muffins, I tend to do more scones and quick breads, why? Probably because muffins feel more complicated, but they really aren’t. And I love a good, tender, moist muffin as much as the next girl!! I’d love to hear your comments if you try this, just scroll down below the recipe!
Recipe lightly adapted from Lou Lou Girls.
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Honey Bran Muffin {Mimi's Copycat}
Soft, a little chewy, packed with amazing flavor and gooeyness these copycat Mimi's Honey Bran Muffins are are perfect and you might say that they are on the healthy-ish side! WIN!
Ingredients
Glaze
- 3 tablespoons all-natural cane sugar (regular sugar is fine)
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons water
- pinch of salt
Muffins
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons molasses, unsulphured
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I like avocado or grapeseed oils)
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream or half & half
- 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest (optional for a little extra to sprinkle on top)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup wheat bran
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350° and spray muffin tin (12 cup) with spray oil.
Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk your glaze ingredients together and set aside. If using all natural cane sugar, whisk for a bit to break down the larger granules.
MUFFINS
- In a separate bowl add dry ingredients; flour, wheat bran, sea salt, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk to combine, set aside. In a bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, mix brown sugar, honey, molasses, and oil and mix on medium speed until smooth.
- Add egg, water, cream (or half & half) and orange zest and mix until incorporated, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Slowly add your dry ingredients with mixer on low speed until mixed.
- Stir glaze and using a small cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop about 2/3 of a tablespoon of glaze into bottom of each muffin cup, spreading it around and up the sides, this will ensure that distribution of the glaze is even and gets all over that muffin!
- Using a medium or large cookie scoop, scoop muffin batter into muffin cups, about 2/3 full, careful not to overfill them, they do overflow a bit, but you don't want them overflowing onto the bottom of your oven. Bake for 20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
- As soon as they are done, line a cooling rack with a piece of parchment paper and carefully flip the muffin tin over, allowing those beautiful bran muffins to escape. Eat immediately (especially yummy with a pat of butter) or cool and reheat (also with a pat of butter and maybe drizzle of honey!)
- Please enjoy bran responsibly! ------------- I crack myself up!!
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1 muffinAmount Per Serving: Calories: 214Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 26mgSodium: 215mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 2gSugar: 22gProtein: 3g
The nutritional information is estimated and may not be entirely accurate, at times it pulls information for suggestions and options which may increase calories, etc. Nutritional information will change based on used ingredients, quantities used, etc.
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These look heavenly!
Thank you so much Heidi!! They are!!!
I made these honey bran muffins tonight and they turned out wonderful! I did not have wheat bran so I substituted with oat bran. They were delicious but a little more cake like than the “Mimi’s” muffins. I will try with the wheat bran next time. Still yummy and easy to make!
YAY! So glad you liked them Dawn! Good to know about the oat bran, I’ve been wanting to try them with oats, cake like is not all bad!
This looks like a delicious muffin that we will really enjoy! Thanks for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday and have a good week!
Miz Helen
Thank you so much Miz Helen! I sure hope your readers will enjoy, it’s a pretty darn tasty “healthy” muffin!!
The recipe says that one muffin has 33 grams of fiber, was it supposed to be 3 grams? Just wondering!
Hi Linda, We wish huh! I went into the nutrition card to double check, it’s actually 33 carbs and 2 grams of fiber, it confused me too! It’s a nutritional card and I just plug in the number of servings and based on the ingredients it comes up with the calculations.
Really awesome and detailed recipe and instructions. Thanks for this awesome recipe. Going to make it in the weekends.
Thanks Danny, hope you love it!
I love Mimi’s Cafe bran muffins and this recipe is spot on! They are perfect! I couldn’t find wheat bran so I used oat bran (in the oatmeal section). I’m already planning on making them again. My family all fought over who got to eat the last one!
Love that you used oat bran, if I had had some it’s probably what I would have used! Thank you so much for commenting, glad your family loved them!
This tasted really good, and brought back memories of eating them in the restaurant. They were easy to make, too. I didn’t have molasses so I used rice malt syrup. I also used coconut oil. They were slightly drier than I remember, but that might be due to my using a convection oven. I did reduce it to 300 degrees but next time I’ll try reducing the cook time by a few minutes.
Hi Christina, thank you for commenting and putting in your substitutions as well. If they were dry I would definitely suggest the reduction in oven temp as you did along with reduction of cooking time! Glad you liked them! Happy baking, Kathleen
These are perfect! Crusty exterior, creamy interior, with a bit of chew. No need to look further for a Mimi Bran Muffin. Nailed it!
Why thank you so much Diane, makes my day when I hear from readers who’ve tried recipes and love them! Happy baking, be well! Kathleen
These are so delicious! I eliminated the 1/3 cup of brown sugar from the muffin mix because the orange blossom honey I had is really sweet and this still came out sticky, sweet and fully craveable! Also, I didn’t have a muffin pan so I used an 8×8 square pan with zero issues. Thank you so much for this new family favorite.
Love it Maeve! Sounds delicious and so great to know you can make it in an 8×8, makes portion control a little easier that way too! Happy Baking!
Be well,
Kathleen