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
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! 😉
I just made this recipe today and I love it so much! I started with the oats on my kitchen scale and my 180g came out to about 3 cups :S oops! before I added the liquids I poured it all back and measured it out using your ‘correct way to measure’ method which yielded 80g. Overall they turned out almost perfect! out of curiosity, what is the benefit of using molasses? I’m not a huge fan of the flavour and was wondering if I could just use double the honey and no molasses next time.
Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins Tessa! It’s great to hear you found my “how to measure” tips useful too. 🙂 Molasses is what gives bran muffins their iconic flavor. If you don’t like that flavor, then yes — you can substitute additional honey for the molasses!
I just made these and they are super dense. My batter was on the drier side like some other commenters noted (I’m an avid baker and usually measure dry ingredients the same way you recommend, so that wasn’t the issue — maybe it’s the oat bran? It’s from the bulk section in the grocery so I’m not sure about the brand). That said, the baked muffins, whiled dense are nice & moist. Curious to see what my 14 month old thinks about them (I’m sure she’ll gobble them up). 🙂
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Kate! It could very well be the oat bran. I wish all brands of oat bran behaved the same way! In the future, if you’re going to use the bulk bin bran (say that 5 times fast!), you can try adding an additional ¼ cup of buttermilk just before stirring in the flour mixture. That should help with the dry batter, and it shouldn’t increase the baking time by more than a couple minutes. I hope your daughter enjoys the muffins too! 🙂
Hello, I’m so excited to make these tonight, but I just realized that I have wheat bran and not oat bran. It specifically Bob’s Red Mill unprocessed Miller’s wheat bran. Will this ne an acceptable substitute for oat bran?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Laura! I haven’t tried using wheat bran before, so I’m not personally sure. However, other readers have reported that they’ve had good luck with it! My best advice would be to measure by volume, not weight, so you’d need 1 ½ cups of the wheat bran (which is 90g, not 180g like the oat bran!). Does that make sense? 🙂 I can’t wait to hear how your muffins turn out!
Hi, can I please ask if the normal yoghurt and butter milk (so not low fat ones but not the sweetened ones either, I am talking about natural Greek yogurt) will produce the same result or will it make the cup cakes oily? Thanks
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Prembala! Full-fat Greek yogurt and buttermilk will both work. These muffins shouldn’t be oily, but the nutrition information will definitely change, if that’s a concern for you. I’d love to hear what you think of these muffins if you try them! 🙂
Is oat bran and oat bran cereal the same thing? I looked at Kroger’s and they had Bobs Red Mill Oat Bran cereal. I’m confused about what to use. These look really great, by the way…
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Jan! This is the oat bran from Bob’s Red Mill that I use in my bran muffin recipes. If that’s what you saw in your local Kroger’s, then it’ll work perfectly in these muffins! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of them if you decide to try them!