Bran muffins are a very good source of dietary fiber, therefore they make excellent and healthy breakfast meals. As they take a little bit more time to prepare than other types of muffins, you can make the batter and refrigerate it overnight, if you want to bake the muffins first thing in the morning, before your family wakes up. This is one of the favorite muffin recipes of many kids.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups wheat bran
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup raisins (you can also use dates or dried apricots, chopped)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2/3 cup sugar (brown is better than white; you can substitute the whole sugar amount or a part of it with honey or molasses)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Cooking method:

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line the muffin tin cups with paper liners or grease it. Mix the wheat bran with the buttermilk and let it sit for 10 minutes. This is the additional step that makes the preparation time a bit longer, but you can’t skip it if you want to bake perfect bran muffins. Beat the egg, add the oil and the sugar, then pour the mix over the buttermilk with bran after the ten minutes have passed. Mix together the dry ingredients, then stir them into the buttermilk and blend well. Now add the dried fruits, raisins or whatever you decided you want to go into your muffins and spoon the batter in the muffin tin cups. Fill them only 3 quarters, so the muffins have enough room to expand during the baking process. Bake for 20 minutes, then stick one muffin with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, take them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before taking them out of the pan.