These soft healthy bran muffins are extra moist and perfect for breakfast!

Homemade bran muffins

This recipe is so delicious and easy to make from scratch, you will never need to spend money buying a box mix again.

The healthy muffins are packed with nutrition, at just 100 calories each!

And you can freeze leftovers for later, making them a great family friendly option for breakfast meal prep.

Whip up a batch on Sunday to eat throughout the week. Or make a double batch and freeze some right away for an almost instant morning meal whenever you wish.

Also try these Black Bean Brownies

The best bran muffin recipe

Imagine enjoying a dozen fluffy, bakery style bran muffins hot from the oven, with no buttermilk and no eggs required.

The easy classic muffin recipe can be low fat, vegan, gluten free, soy free, cholesterol free, nut free, high in fiber, and dairy free.

They are also low calorie with an oil free option for those who prefer to avoid oils.

Plus, the recipe uses up pantry staple ingredients that you can always keep on hand. Serve them for breakfast, pack one into a lunch box, or prepare the muffins as a kid friendly healthy after school snack.

Try them plain or topped with almond butter or peanut butter and strawberry jam, mashed banana, vegan cream cheese, apple butter, or your favorite butter spread.

Ingredients for healthy bran muffins

Flour: This recipe works with spelt flour, white flour, or oat flour. If you prefer flourless muffins made with almond meal, try these Keto Muffins.

While you may also use whole wheat flour or pastry flour, they yield results with a somewhat dense and tough texture. If you do want whole wheat muffins, I recommend using half whole wheat and half white or spelt flour.

Bran flakes: Pretty much any bran flake cereal will work here. I buy Whole Foods brand, because it is free of high fructose corn syrup.

All-Bran flakes or Trader Joe’s Organic Bran Flakes are also fine to use.

For gluten free muffins, choose corn flakes instead of bran cereals. I have not tried buckwheat flakes yet. Oat bran flakes can be used for wheat free muffins.

Sweetener: You can go with your favorite granulated sweetener here, including regular sugar, coconut sugar or date sugar, or granulated erythritol for sugar free muffins.

To add nutrition and flavor, I use blackstrap molasses as the liquid sweetener, which is high in iron and calcium. However, you can sub pure maple syrup, agave, honey, or keto syrup if desired.

Yogurt: Plain yogurt, Greek yogurt, or dairy free yogurt all work equally well.

For muffins without yogurt, I’ve made them with applesauce, roasted mashed sweet potato, vegan yogurt, or mashed banana. The banana bran muffin variation might be my personal favorite.

Turn them into carrot bran muffins by substituting an equal amount of cooked and then mashed carrot. Or make pumpkin bran muffins with canned pumpkin.

Milk – Go with any milk you have on hand. Many readers use skim milk or low fat milk. As a vegan, I like to bake the muffins with almond milk, coconut milk, or oat milk.

The add-ins: The most popular choice is to add half a cup of raisins for raisin bran muffins. Or throw in a handful of shredded coconut, one or two tablespoons of flax or chia seeds, or press a few blueberries into the top of each muffin before baking.

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How to make bran muffins

Start by gathering all of the ingredients and placing them on the counter.

In a large mixing bowl, cover the bran flakes with the milk of choice, and let it sit for half an hour. This softens the flakes so your finished muffins will be nice and soft.

Line a muffin tin with liners, and preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Add all remaining ingredients to the large bowl with the bran flakes and milk, and stir to form a muffin batter.

Portion the batter evenly into the lined muffin tin. Then bake on the oven’s center rack for 20 minutes or until the muffins have risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out mostly clean.

Let cool. If you cover them loosely overnight, the muffins are sweeter and have a better texture the next day.

Thanks to some of the moisture evaporating while they sit, the liners peel off easily the next day too (even in the low fat and oil free version).

Many people believe bran muffins are a good choice to help with weight loss or promoting good digestion and preventing constipation, thanks to the insoluble and soluble fiber.

I just like them because they are delicious and their neutral flavor goes well with sweet or savory breakfast options.

Try them alongside a Tofu Scramble or a Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie.

Muffin storage tips

The muffins can be left out for a day, loosely covered so extra moisture has a way to escape, ensuring the baked goods will not get soggy.

For optimum freshness after a day, I like to store the muffins in the refrigerator. Arrange them in a single layer in an airtight container lined with paper towels. They usually last for up to three to four days this way.

For longer storage, leftovers can also be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for a month or two. Store in a single layer, or put a layer of parchment paper in between layers so the bran muffins do not stick together.

Thaw frozen muffins before eating, either by defrosting overnight or by warming them up in the microwave or oven or in a pan on the stove top.

This yummy eggless muffin recipe will remind you of the old fashioned bran muffin recipe your grandmother used to make!

Step by step recipe video

Above, watch the bran muffin recipe video

The recipe was adapted from my Banana Muffins and Oatmeal Muffins.

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