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!
Preheat your oven to 350° F (175° C) and spray muffin tin (12 cups) with spray oil.
In a small bowl, whisk together granulated sugar (3 TBL), brown sugar (3 TBL), honey (2 TBL), melted butter (3 TBL), water (2 tsp) and pinch of salt. Whisk longer to break down the larger granules if using all-natural cane sugar. Set aside.
In a separate bowl add dry ingredients; flour (1 cup), wheat/oat bran (1 cup), salt (¼ tsp), baking powder (½ tsp), and baking soda (1 tsp) and whisk to combine, set aside.
In a bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, mix brown sugar (⅓ cup), honey (¼ cup), molasses (2 TBL), and oil (¼ cup) and mix on medium speed until smooth.
Add egg (1 room temp), water (¼ cup), cream (2 TBL) (or half & half) and orange zest (1 ½-2 tsp) and mix until incorporated, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Slowly add your dry ingredients with a mixer on low speed until mixed.
Stir glaze and using a small cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop about ⅔ 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 ⅔ full, careful not to overfill them, they do overflow a bit, but you don't want them overflowing onto the bottom of your oven. *If your muffin pan is deeper or larger than most, fill until about ½ full or make fewer larger muffins.Bake for 20 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
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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Notes
Storage TipsStore completely cooled sticky bran muffins in an airtight container in a single layer on the counter for up to 5 days. Or freeze up to 3 months. Rewarm for a few minutes in a 350° F (175° C) oven or individually on a plate in the microwave just 20 seconds or so. Oat bran and wheat bran may be used interchangeably. Some readers have complained this recipe doesn't fill a muffin pan, but it does. My hunch is that they have used large muffin tins that I have; if you don't have enough batter, you either filled them too full or your muffin tin is larger than most. Either just bake larger muffins or move the batter around so that you have a total of 12. If baking larger, they may need to bake a few minutes longer.