Turn boring bran muffins up a notch by adding delicious and healthful mix-ins such as shredded carrots, coconut and dried cherries. Served warm with butter, this muffin can run with the best of ’em.  Blog post updated October 2023.

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I have been on a bran muffin kick since my taste buds were turned on by the Albemarle Baking Company box of treats our neighbors brought us when Birch was born.

Exhibit A:

During my research of consuming one half a giant muffin at a time, I discovered that the Mudhouse Coffee bran muffins are amazing as well!

Exhibit B:

As a result, exhibit C was born: a healthier, properly portioned, semi-homemade bran muffin I can pull out of my freezer and enjoy anytime. This is one of the easiest bran muffin recipes as it’s semi-homemade. Did anyone ever watch Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee on the Food Network!?

What’s nice about this recipe is you do not have to think about the all of the usual steps when baking, like measuring your all purpose flour and other dry ingredients, wondering if you can swap baking soda for baking powder, wondering how old the wheat bran is that’s been hibernating in the back of your pantry. No need for melted butter or brown sugar either – too easy!

Total time to whip up this recipe: just 30 minutes!

Jazzed-Up Bran Muffins

Ingredients

• box of Organics Oat Bran Muffin Mix
• mix ingredients as indicated by the instructions on the package (egg, oil, etc.)
• dried cherries
• dried unsweetened shredded coconut
• shredded carrots

Instructions

Step 1

First things first, preheat the over as package directs.

Step 2

Prepare muffin mix as package directs (using oil, egg, water, etc.).

Step 3

Stir in dried cherries, shredded coconut, and shredded carrots. 

Step 4

Pour  about 1/2 cup of batter into a prepared muffin tin. These are my favorite liners for the muffin cups.

Step 4

Bake per package directions, allow to cool completely to room temperature and enjoy!

Store muffins in an airtight container (or freeze some, as I do!).

These are semi-homemade because I found a bran muffin mix at Whole Foods and #hadtohaveit. But bran alone seemed a bit boring, so I added dried cherries, flaked coconut, and some shredded carrots from the fridge to give this muffin a nutritional edge. (Hmm, dark chocolate chips would be good in these too!)

Served warm with butter, this muffin can run with the best of ’em.

I froze most of my batch and pull them out to heat up in the toaster oven when a craving hits.

And if you know me well (and many of you do!) you’ll know that I crumble muffins on top of anything! Yogurt is a favorite. Oatmeal too!

If the thought of warm, healthy bran muffins has you feeling cozy, perhaps you’ll want to spend your afternoon snuggled under a blanket reading a great book!

Do you have a favorite healthy muffin recipe?

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