During my sophomore year of high school, our band director arranged a trip to Hawaii during our Spring Break for all of the members of the marching band and color guard. The 250 of us, plus all of our instruments and a few dozen chaperones, boarded three separate planes and landed in Honolulu on Easter.
We stayed in hotel in Waikiki, just two blocks from the beach, and spent the entire week moving a mile a minute. We toured Pearl Harbor, dined at a comedy club, marched in a parade, went to a luau, performed a few concerts, explored a bazaar, and spent as much time on the beach as we could. (Although I stayed out of the water and built sand castles instead…)
Every morning, we walked a block up the street to a restaurant where our band director arranged for us to enjoy a buffet breakfast to fuel our adventures. It was mostly traditional fare: eggs, bacon, hash browns, oatmeal, bagels, lots of fresh fruit, and mini muffins. Eventually I sampled the blueberry one, halfway expecting it to taste like cardboard, but…
Holy moly, that was the most tender, buttery muffin I’ve ever tasted! Probably due to the ultimate trifecta of sour cream, buttermilk, and butter. But since I considered Hawaii a vacation, not a field trip, I didn’t care and loaded my plate with muffins the last few days of our stay.
With the weather turning warmer here (we’re up to 80°!) and Easter right around the corner, I started thinking about that band trip and those blueberry muffins again. Since I can’t quite run enough miles to work off that trio of indulgent ingredients, I baked my own clean eating breakfast goodies with a healthy bran twist: these Blueberry Buttermilk Bran Muffins!
While they contain only a fraction of the calories of the originals, these muffins are just as tender and juicy. Look at those big berries with purple juice bursting out the sides! That’s my kind of treat, when there’s more fruit than muffin, especially when it comes to blueberries. Anyway…
They’re incredibly tender due to the low-fat buttermilk and Greek yogurt. Both add a lot of the same moisture as extra butter or oil but without the excess calories. Plus you get a little protein boost from the Greek yogurt, which is always a good thing in my book!
To ensure these bran muffins don’t turn out dry or cardboard-y, I’ll let you in on my little secret… Soak the oat bran before mixing it into the batter. Stir it together with the buttermilk, Greek yogurt, and vanilla, and let that sit while you measure and mix the rest of the ingredients. Similar to letting overnight oats soak in milk, this softens the bran. I never bake bran muffins any other way!
Soft, warm, and fresh from the oven… It’s a true exercise in patience to let these muffins sit on the cooling racks long enough so you don’t burn your tongue on the fruit! My mom would tell you to split one in half and put a thin pat of butter on top of each side, letting its richness melt into all of the cracks.
Despite being a healthier baking blogger, I definitely recommend splurging to try that at least once!
| Blueberry Buttermilk Bran Muffins | | Print |
- 1 ½ c (180g) oat bran (measured correctly and gluten-free if necessary)
- ⅓ c (80g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ⅓ c (80mL) low-fat buttermilk
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 c (120g) whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured correctly)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ¼ c (60mL) honey
- ¼ c (60mL) molasses
- 1 ½ c (210g) frozen blueberries
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and lightly coat 12 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the oat bran, yogurt, buttermilk, and vanilla.
- Reserve 1 tablespoon of flour. Whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a separate bowl. In a third bowl, whisk together the coconut oil or butter and egg. Stir in the honey and molasses. Mix in the bran mixture. Add in the flour mixture, stirring until just incorporated. Toss the frozen blueberries with the remaining 1 tablespoon of flour; then gently fold into the batter.
- Divide the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350°F for 24-26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire rack.
I highly recommend this powdered buttermilk! It’s shelf-stable and keeps for ages. All you need to do is add water! Alternatively, to make your own buttermilk, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a ⅓-cup measuring cup, and fill the remaining space with any milk of your choice.
Fresh blueberries may be substituted. The bake time may decrease by a tiny bit.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
More bran muffin recipes from other food bloggers…
♥ Clean Eating Oat Bran Muffins by iFOODreal
♥ Cinnamon-Raisin Peanut Butter Oat Bran Muffins by Ambitious Kitchen
♥ Double Apple Bran Muffins by Garnish with Lemon
♥ Date Bran Muffins by Vegan in the Freezer
Those look delicious! Love all the links to other recipes too. Thanks!
Thanks Ginny, and it’s my pleasure! 🙂
Love these, Amy! Great tip on soaking the oat bran, too. Can’t wait to try them! (P.S. Thanks for the link love.)
You’re welcome Anna! Your gorgeous muffins looked too delicious to pass by! 🙂
I love these muffins and how you made them so healthy! I love that you soften the bran by mixing it with the wet ingredients first!
Thanks Katie! It’s a fun little trick!
Amy, your picture have me totally drooling, and wishing I had a giant muffin to go with ny coffee
Aww thank you Heather! That means a lot coming from you — your photography is always so gorgeous!
These muffins look so moist Amy! I usually stay away from bran muffins because they are either loaded with oil or chokingly dry. Can’t wait to try these ones out!
Thanks Danae! I’ve definitely had my fair share of dry bran muffins. Not fun! 😉 I’d love to hear what you think if you try these!
What a fun experience!! And these muffins. I love bran, but have never had blueberry bran!
Thanks Dorothy! I definitely recommend fruit in bran muffins — it makes them so much more moist!
I just made these, but haven’t eaten any yet. I have to wonder about the amounts for the wet ingredients because the batter was extremely dry and quite crumbly. The oat bran didn’t really have anything to “soak” in with the amount of buttermilk and yogurt listed. I am curious about the taste once they are cooler.
If the batter was dry and crumbly, then there was too much oat bran or flour. How did you measure these Angie? I’ve found that if I directly scoop either from the container, I end up with 1.5 times as much as when I lightly spoon and level (I describe more here). Too many of either of these would really dry out the batter. Hopefully that helps!
I have been looking for a recipe like this for ages and was so excited to try it but had the same problem as everyone else. I measured the bran carefully and lightly (with scales) and after adding the yoghurt and buttermilk the mixture was still very very dry. I ended up additing double the buttermilk but it was still a very think, dry batter. I’m going to try again and add a bit more yoghurt and buttermilk and maybe even more butter and see how it goes
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Felicity! What brand of oat bran did you use?
i found the oat bran mixture to be too dry as well. I wasn’t sure if I measured the bran right so I set the first mixture aside and started again. It was better but still too dry in my opinion. The muffins turned out alright but are quite dense and doughy from too much bran maybe. So as not to waste the first bran mixture I added another 1/3 cup buttermilk, another egg, canola oil instead of coconut oil, unbleached all purpose instead of whole wheat (I think the whole wheat flour makes them dense so 1/2 white 1/2 whole wheat would work fine), brown sugar instead of honey, and only 1 tsp baking powder but added 1tsp baking soda since there’s buttermilk in the recipe. These turned out much better than the first batch, they rose better and are much lighter. If I make them again I’d cut the bran back to 1 cup, use a mixture of white and whole wheat flour and use baking powder and baking soda.
I made the Strawberry Banana Poppyseed and Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins (cut the maple syrup to 1/3 cup), they were very good but I found they both needed a bit more milk
too
I’m sorry the muffins didn’t turn out for you Sheryl; that must have been frustrating. If all of the batters from my muffin recipes are too dry, then it’s probably an issue with how the dry ingredients are being measured. How are you measuring them? All dry ingredients (flour, oat bran, oats, etc.) should be measured using the spoon-and-level method (I describe that in more detail here). If they’re scooped directly from the container, I end up with at least 1.5 times as much of each, which would definitely dry out the muffin batter! The muffin batter is also meant to be very thick, not runny, especially for the bran muffins. Hopefully that helps!
I also had problems with the dry ingredients– and I meticulously weighed them out on my fancy kitchen scale. The bran “soaked” in the buttermilk mixture was barely damp– hardly even enough to make it crumbly… then with the addition of more flour, it was even more dry. I added some buttermilk because it with the other reviews, I thought there must surely be a mistake in the amounts, and it looked like sticky (bran) cookie batter. The recipe made 1 1/2 batches of muffins, which never really rose, changed shape or softened. Sadly, they were pretty flavorless, crumbly & dry. I wanted so much to love these– buttermilk and molasses and honey and bran and fruit!!!– but I really think something must be off with the recipe (especially if they are labeled as the top on your “13 Must Try” recipes.
I’m sorry the muffins didn’t turn out for you Christine; that must have been disappointing. I’d like to work together to figure out what happened with your batch. As written, the recipe yields 12 standard sized muffins, although slightly on the smallish side, so if you were able to get 1.5 batches and the muffins were dry, that makes it sound as if there were too many dry ingredients in the batter. I posted a photo of what the soaked oat bran should look like in this post (4th photo down) — did yours look like that? It should be very thick, similar to the texture of cookie dough, and after it’s mixed into the molasses mixture, that combination should look more like somewhat thick pancake batter. After the flour is mixed in, the muffin batter should still be thick yet not as thick as cookie dough. It could also be that the muffins were baked too long. Does this all make sense?
Before I make a mistake, do I allow these frozen blueberries to completely thaw? Btw’ your muffin recipes are the best.
No need to let them thaw Linda! Just pull them straight from the freezer and toss them with the flour as directed in Step 3. I hope you enjoy the muffins!
Made a few of these for my coworkers and they were a HUGE hit!! I love all your recipes, especially the breakfast ones!! I’m so excited to get your cookbook when it comes out and I hope you will do another “healthy breakfast treats” version in the near future 😊. I would be the first to buy it!!!
You’re so sweet to share the muffins with your coworkers Melanie! And thank you so much for your kind words about my blog and cookbook. I really hope you enjoy it once it’s released! 🙂
Just about how many calories on each muffin?
The full Nutrition Information for my recipes is always included beneath the recipe Janeth! 🙂 I hope you enjoy the muffins!
Have you tried these as mini muffins? I was wondering how long to cook in a mini muffin pan?
The recipe should work just fine as mini muffins! I’m not entirely sure how long they’ll take to bake, but I’d start checking them after about 12 minutes. They’ll be done when the centers feel firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the muffins Elisa!
As delicious as advertized. I took them out at 11 min b/c my oven tends to cook fast. Thanks for the recipe.
Perfect! I’m so glad you enjoyed the muffins Elisa!
Hi Amy, is it possible to add protein powder to this recipe? If so, what substitutions would I need to make? Thank you!
You’re welcome to try Susan, but I can’t guarantee the results since I haven’t tried it myself. I’d recommend decreasing the amount of flour to compensate for adding protein powder. I’d love to hear what you try and how it turns out!
Thank you so much for your quick reply. I will have some time next week to “experiment”. I’ll let you know as soon as I give it a try! Thanks again! Susan
My pleasure Susan, and I look forward to hearing how it goes! 🙂
Yumm! If using wheat bran instead of oat, would I need to change the measurement? Thank you!
No need to change the amount if using wheat bran! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of the muffins Amanda!
Tried these. I baked them for only 14 min. And they were totally done. Good thing I checked early. Next time I’d add more liquid though. They weren’t dry but didn’t spread in the tin as much as I’d like. Maybe also next time I’ll use bald white half wholewheat so the kids are more into eating them. I think they’re absolutely scrumptious!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins Rachel! 🙂 How did you measure the oat bran? Did you use a kitchen scale or measuring cups? If the latter, did you use the measuring cups to scoop the oat bran directly from its container? Fresh wild blueberries sound AMAZING! I wish I could’ve tasted those — I bet they’re the reason your muffins tasted so good!
I used a spoon to measure into the cup then levelled off. The kids actually loved them!! I barely got any!
That’s the best kind of compliment Rachel — I’m honored!! 🙂 Thanks for the info! If you don’t own a kitchen scale, here’s what I recommend doing for measuring the oat bran (and flour, cocoa powder, etc!): use a fork to “scoop” up the oat bran from the container, and lightly shake the fork back and forth over the top of your measuring cup to transfer the oat bran into it. Once there’s a small mound of oat bran extending past the rim of the measuring cup, then place the flat back of a knife against the top of the measuring cup, and gently scrape it across the top to get rid of the excess oat bran. Never “pat” the flour down with the knife or fork. This fork method acts like a sifter (without dirtying another dish!) and guarantees you’ll add less oat bran to the batter, compared to using a spoon, so you’ll end up with moist and tender muffins. Does that make sense? 🙂
Oops. I meant to say half not bald. 😬
The kids and I picked fresh wild blueberries as well. We ended up with perfect amount for this recipe. Can’t wait for them to try them when they get home from their first day of school!!
Hi amy!! I absolutely LOVE all your bran muffins recipes. Could i just check if i can decrease the amount of oat bran in the muffins and increase the amount of whole wheat flour accordingly? By the way, i made your pancakes last weekend with some chocomate chips and they were AMAZING. Thanks for the healthy and wholesome recipes you’ve been posting!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the pancakes Selena! That means a lot to me! 🙂 I think that should work with these muffins. You can also grind up oats to be about the same size as the oat bran, if you’re running low on oat bran, and the muffins will turn out fine. I’ve definitely done that before! 😉