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.
Trending right now: Vegan Banana Bread
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.
Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups bran flakes or gluten free corn flakes
- 3/4 cup milk of choice
- 1/2 cup yogurt or applesauce, pumpkin, or mashed banana
- 2 tbsp oil or additional milk of choice
- 2 tbsp blackstrap molasses or pure maple syrup, honey, or agave
- 1 1/4 cup flour (spelt, white, or oat)
- 1/2 cup sugar (see note above for sugar free)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- optional 1/2 cup raisins
- optional 1 tbsp ground flax for added nutrition
Instructions
- To make homemade bran muffins, soak bran flakes in the milk in a large bowl for half an hour. Then preheat the oven to 400 F. Whisk all remaining ingredients into the mixing bowl to form a muffin batter. Portion the batter into lined muffin tins, and bake on the center rack of the oven for 20 minutes. The muffins taste even better the next day, and liners peel off easily after a day as well. View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More High Fiber Breakfast Recipes
Or these Healthy Blueberry Muffins
This recipe is awesome! I was wondering if you could use wheat flour instead? Have you experimented with different flour?
Hi, we have tried spelt flour, white flour, or oat flour. Katie doesn’t often bake with whole wheat flour or pastry flour, but you can definitely experiment. Be sure to report back if you do!
Tried this recipe tonight and we love them! I used raisins and added Chopped walnuts. Can’t believe they’ll be better tomorrow!
Thank you so much for trying them 🙂
Can we use wheat bran and not the cereal?
We have never tried it. If you experiment, be sure to report back!
The cereal is what makes them taste the way they do, more than any other ingredient. I tried making bran muffins with just wheat bran and chickpea and oat flour. They don’t taste like bran muffins aside from the fiber the bran adds! I’ve also tried using spelt flour without any bran and it comes much closer, so there’s something about the wheat in the cereal that gives them their distinctive flavor.
Try adding 1 c grated carrot too. Major moisture/flavor improvement when adding the carrot. This is a very forgiving recipe, so experiment all you want.
Just made these, they are so nice, will definitely make again.
Does anyone know the calories please. Thanks
Thank you so much for making them! Full nutrition facts are linked at the bottom of the recipe box under the ingredients/instructions 🙂
Great recipe. I used applesauce. Put a strawberry flavor packet into the milk to soak the cereal in. One of those dry flavor sticks designed to flavor a 16oz bottle of water. Reduced sugar slightly since the strawberry flavor is sweet. Added 1tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp dry mustard. 1/4 tsp black pepper.
Your version sounds so intriguing and delicious!
You know they’re good when your kids DEVOUR them when all they ever want is pancakes or high-sugar muffins. Definitely going to make a few batches to freeze (and then hide a batch for myself because if I don’t, I won’t get any!).
Great recipe!
This recipe looks fantastic!
Are the muffins mini or regular-sized?
Thank You!
These are regular size in the photos, but you can absolutely make mini ones if you prefer.
Thank you for your kind reply!
This is an incredible recipe! Thank you so very much!
Thank YOU for trying it 🙂
Yum; what a great recipe! I’ve made these a few times so far. I like making mini muffins, instead of full size. I was not able to get bran flakes alone; you know, supply chain issues… The cereal I got had almonds and sweetened raisins already added. I decreased the amount of sugar because of the raisins. This recipe is so versatile; I’ve used yogurt, pumpkin and a mix of the 2. I’ve also subbed dates and dried cranberries for raisins. So tasty and good for digestion.
I have been making the muffins regularly! I bake in a muffin top pan. The recipe is very versatile indeed. I usually include banana, but have done plain yogurt and it is good, too (but I especially like the banana flavor!).
I usually add an egg, but one time when I was out I tried it without (like the recipe says) and was pleasantly surprised that it rose nicely.
I generally use Heritage Flakes cereal from W. Foods (you really need to mash these hearty flakes or you will get some really hard bits in the muffins), but have also used Wheaties.
Any way I make them, they turn out craggy and comforting! I think at this point I can say that this is a tried and true recipe. I highly recommend it! Thanks for posting.
Amy I agree! I used the mashed bananas and loved it.
Oh my goodness!! I made these really for my son, he’s 4 years old and has had issues with constipation. I wanted to incorporate more fiber recipes in his diet. Honestly these are better than any loaf I have had at Starbucks! I served it to my son for a night snack with a little butter warmed up and he loved it! I had some too 😊 thank you for sharing
Just made this recipe with applesauce, maple syrup, sugar and wheat flour and dried cherries. It is a winner. Delicious and way better than the cereal box bran flake recipe! I will be making this again and again. Well done
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
I made these, added chocolate chips, and within 30 minutes our family of 4 had devoured 8! They are a huge hit. I also used all bran cereal, as others have done.
Hi this looks like a great recipe! I wanted to find a way to use up some of my extra boxes of bran flakes. Can I use honey or maple syrup instead up sugar?…maybe 1/4 cup?
(Just made CCK Chocolate Banana Bread….it was a winner with my family!)….Love all of your recipes!
Any suggestions would be great!
Sooooo good! I made with pumpkin, honey and a little bit of cinnamon. I also added dried cranberries. Amazing breakfast. Thank you!
These are so versatile and really, really great tasting. I used applesauce instead of yogurt and honey rather than molasses. Added raisins. The recipe made 6 large muffins. So dense, moist and flavorful, like a bakery muffin.
Thank you so much for trying them 🙂