Easy & Delicious Bran Muffins Recipe (No Cereal)
Craving a healthy breakfast or treat that’s bursting with flavor and nutrition? Try this delicious bran muffins recipe that skips the cereal and extra sugar but keeps the taste! Made with simple, whole ingredients, these fiber packed bran muffins are perfect for keeping you satisfied. Plus, the whole family will love them!
✩ What readers are saying…
“These are perfection! Thank you so much for this recipe. Just the right level of sweetness.” -Miranda
Bran muffins used to be super popular and the recipes I mostly heard about then were those made with a bran cereal.
The problem was I literally never had that cereal on hand and so I’d make another type of muffin (like lemon flaxseed or zucchini cinnamon).
But I missed the heartiness of bran muffins – and the fiber they provide which doctors agree most adults need more of (source).
So I found a classic bran muffin recipe from an old cookbook and adapted it to use plain whole bran, less sugar, and whole wheat flour – and they turned out SO GOOD.
What’s Great About This Recipe
- NO CEREAL NEEDED – This recipe uses plain wheat bran that you can find in the baking section (or bin section) of grocery stores. There is no added sugar like with the cereal, so you are in more control of the amount in the finished muffins.
- MIXES UP IN MINUTES – The muffins take just minutes to mix together so you can have warm from the oven muffins in about 30 minutes.
- HEALTHY AND TASTY – Made with whole wheat flour, minimal sugar, whole bran, and either butter or oil of your choice (olive, coconut, etc.) these muffins are nothing like the cake-muffins you often see, yet the whole family will enjoy them!
Recipe Ingredients
You’ll need the following ingredients to make this amazing healthy bran muffins:
Ingredient Notes
- Melted Butter or Oil: Either of these works in this muffin recipe. Use butter for the flavor or use a healthy oil like olive, coconut, or an expeller pressed seed or nut oil (preferably not industrial vegetable oil).
- Whole Wheat Flour: I prefer using whole wheat pastry flour in baking recipes like this as the lower protein content keeps them lighter with the rising agents. However, you can use regular whole wheat flour – the muffins just might be a bit heavier.
- Milk: Whole or 2% work best. Do not use buttermilk (the amount of baking powder to baking soda would need to be adjusted if you did).
- Raisins: While usually added to classic bran muffins, you can leave them out (or use one of the substitutions listed below).
How to make bran muffins: Step by Step
Here are a few helpful visual instructions – the full instructions with exact ingredients can be found in the printable recipe card below.
Step 1: Prep. Heat oven and butter/grease a 12 cup muffin tin. You can also use liners, but I prefer the crisp edges you get with greasing the tin. Using butter gives the muffins a bit more flavor.
Step 2: Mix up batter. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix up the wet ingredients in a glass measuring cup. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix just until no flour remains.
Step 3: Fill tin. Use a muffin scoop to evenly fill the prepared muffin tin with the bran muffin batter. Fill each cup 1/2 to 3/4 full.
Step 4: Bake. You can bake as-is or sprinkle the tops of the batter with a cinnamon-sugar mixture. You use very little per muffin, but it adds a nice crunch and flavor.
Recipe Tips
- Muffin liners vs. greasing cups? This is totally your choice – using liners is quick preparation and easier clean up, while greasing/buttering the cups introduces more flavor and gives the crispier sides. There’s also no sticking-to-the-liners issue (though if you use liners, make them parchment liners and they will NEVER stick).
- Prefer mini muffins? This 12-cup recipe will make 36 mini muffins using a standard small mini tin.
- Using a muffin scoop is the easiest way to portion out muffin batter. So much easier than the two-spoon method.
Storage & Reheating
- Storage: Store the muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
- Reheating: An air fryer or toaster oven is the best way to reheat muffins – set at 300 degrees and heat for 2-3 minutes. For larger amounts, you can heat at 300 degrees in a regular oven for 3-5 minutes.
- Freezing: These muffins freeze great! Seal them in an airtight baggie or container and keep frozen for 3-4 months. Bring to room temperature and reheat as suggested.
Additions & Substitutions
- Citrus Zest: Add a citrus kick with the zest of a lemon or orange.
- Nuts: Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans.
- Use Cranberries: Substitute dried cranberries for the raisins.
- Use Dates: Substitute chopped dried dates for the raisins.
- Make Dairy Free: Substitute oat milk or coconut milk for the milk (these are creamy enough to replace milk 1:1) and use an oil instead of the butter option.
- Flour: You can use unbleached all purpose flour if that’s what you have – substitute 1:1.
- Gluten Free: Use a 1:1 gluten free replacement flour and oat bran in place of wheat bran.
I hope you love this bran muffins recipe! If you make it, be sure to leave a rating so I know how you liked it!
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Easy Bran Muffins Recipe (No Cereal)
Equipment
- 1 12 cup muffin tin
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour (or unbleached flour)
- 1 cup wheat bran (not cereal)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup raisins (or dried cranberries)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray, butter, or line a 12-cup muffin tin.
- Combine flour, bran, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl, breaking up any large clumps of brown sugar. Stir in raisins until coated with flour mixture.
- In a small bowl or 2-cup glass measuring cup, whisk together all the wet ingredients (milk, butter/oil, egg, vanilla).
- Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon just until no flour streaks remain.
- Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin tin, filling 1/2 to 3/4 full.
- Bake 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted a the center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Store the muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
- Freeze muffins by sealing them in an airtight baggie or container – keep frozen for 3-4 months. Bring to room temperature and reheat as suggested.
- Citrus Zest: Add a citrus kick with the zest of a lemon or orange.
- Use Cranberries: Substitute dried cranberries for the raisins.
- Use Dates: Substitute chopped dried dates for the raisins.
- Make Dairy Free: Substitute oat milk or coconut milk for the milk (these are creamy enough to replace milk 1:1) and use an oil instead of the butter option.
- Flour: You can use unbleached all purpose flour if that’s what you have – substitute 1:1.
- Gluten Free: Use a 1:1 gluten free replacement flour and oat bran in place of wheat bran.
Nutrition
Your Questions Answered
No, not all bran muffins are healthy! You need to look at the other ingredients and if there is white flour and lots of sugar or sweeteners, then all the bran in the world will not make them healthy. This recipe uses whole wheat flour, minimal sugar (1.33 teaspoons per muffin), whole bran and the a healthy fat of your choice, so this really is a good option for nutritious breakfasts and snacks.
Wheat bran is high in insoluble fiber which is what we need for regularity and gut health. It has antioxidants that are helpful as well. There are a few downsides if you fall into certain dietary categories – as a wheat product it contains gluten, and contains fructans which aren’t great for IBS (source). There’s also the phytic acid issue – some say it interferes with absorption of things like calcium, but there are conflicting reports on this (source). But basically, if you are healthy and eat a varied, real food diet wheat bran can be another good option.
Standard size bran muffins like this one have about 4 grams of fiber per muffin. Our daily intake should be 25 grams fiber. But it’s not only the amount of fiber, it’s the type: Soluble fiber (oats, legumes, nuts) help regulate blood sugar while insoluble fiber (wheat bran, wheat flour, some vegetables) helps speed the passage of foods through the stomach and intestines, adding bulk to the stool (source). So you should be getting both types in your daily fiber intake.
While they are good plain, adding butter and/or jam takes them to another level. Try 3 Ingredient Maple Blackberry Jam, Small Batch Honey Rhubarb Ginger Jam, or Chia Seed No Cook Blackberry Freezer Jam.
Wonderful easy to make healthy muffins! My husband likes the raisins cut into smaller pieces so I chopped them. They turned out so yummy. I didn’t have pastry flour . Just used Bobs Red Mill whole wheat flour. I think I will purchase whole wheat pastry flour for next time. Thanks for making this recipe available Jami!
Glad you guys liked these, Bea! Good tip on chopping the raisins, I’d probably like it better like that, too. 🙂
I would love to add some pumpkin to these. Maybe just pumpkin spice or can I use some pumpkin puree?
You can always add pumpkin spice to anything to get that flavor, Carole – that would be a good idea! I’m not sure how to just add puree, though, to the recipe.
Additional to original comment…
Used 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream plus 1/2 cup water because I didn’t have milk. Muffins would have been 220 calories using whole milk.
Yum! Used all purpose flour and oil. 235 calories per muffin. Not too sweet…just right. Easy peasy. Less than 10 minutes to make, and 16 in the oven…so in less than 30 minutes, I had delicious homemade bran muffins. This recipe rocks.
That’s great, Teri! So glad you like this recipe.
I made the bran muffins but to me they were kind of crumbly and seemed a bit branny when you chew them. Like I had a mouthful of dust. I followed all instructions but didnt like the outcome.
Sorry to hear that, Evelyn – I haven’t had that issue.
These are perfection! Thank you so much for this recipe. Just the right level of sweetness.
Thank you so much, Miranda – I’m so glad you liked them!!
The Easy Bran Muffins Recipe (no cereal) is fantastic! They are easy to make and the ingredients I can eat. We love these muffins!!
I’m so glad you love these, Susan! Thanks so much for the review 🙂
We love these muffins! They are healthy but really tasty too. Thank you so much for the recipe.
I’m so glad, Margie! Thanks for leaving a review!
These are good! And easy — I used buttermilk, oil, and thawed some frozen blueberries I needed to use. Plus I baked these in a six-muffin tin for about 20 minutes. I’ll be making these again!
Great! So glad they worked with the blueberries, too!