My best friend works in a bakery as her full-time job. Every day, she earns an income staying elbows-deep in flour and making muffins, scones, cookies, and cakes. How neat is that?? I must admit, I’m a tiny bit jealous… I’d love to open up my own bakery someday!
As much as she loves baking, there’s one major downside: the work hours. Her alarm rings just after 3 am, she arrives at the facility before 4:30 am, mixes and shapes and bakes until 2, and slides between the covers to go to sleep by 7 pm. With the days growing longer and the sun setting later, that early bedtime would really throw me off!
A few weeks ago, she visited me shortly after I posted these blueberry buttermilk bran muffins. She mentioned her morning driving routine—nibbling on a muffin and sipping her coffee as she cruised down the empty freeway to work—so I sent her home with the rest of my batch.
The very next day, she texted me, exclaiming that they were the best bran muffins she’s ever eaten. That’s high praise coming from a professional baker!
When she stopped by again last week, she explained that she tried switching to granola or protein bars when her muffin stash ran out, but those just weren’t the same. Nothing beats the texture and flavor of a soft, tender muffin! Since we both love our veggies as much as baked sweets, I immediately mixed up these Carrot Cake Bran Muffins for her to enjoy.
Many people think of bran muffins as bland or dry, but these are the exact opposite! They’re practically as tender as cupcakes and are bursting with warm, cozy flavors. So how do we do that?
Amy’s Nerdy Food Notes!
How we mix together the ingredients determines the texture of the muffins. Many recipes stir in the oat bran along with the dry ingredients, but this leads to dry muffins. Instead, soak the oat bran in milk, Greek yogurt, and vanilla before measuring anything else. Similar to soaking oatmeal to make overnight oats, soaking the oat bran softens it and creates that tender muffin texture we want.
Two ingredients create the characteristic cozy bran muffin flavor: molasses and cinnamon. Molasses has a warm, rich, earthy taste, and I always envision cool foggy mornings paired with a tall cup of coffee and fleecy blanket whenever I bake with it. In other words, it adds the ultimate cozy taste! You can find it on the baking aisle near the maple and corn syrups.
Cinnamon also provides a warmth and depth to bran muffins. Because I love adding it to my carrots cakes, I also sprinkled in a little nutmeg as well. When paired together, these two spices create a tantalizing aroma while the muffins bake and cool on the counter, which always tempts me to break into one while the steam still drifts off the top. The burnt fingers and tongue would be worth it!
The final important ingredient in these particular bran muffins is the shredded carrots. About 3 large carrots, peeled first, will yield the amount you need. To make quick work of shredding, use a food processor! Do not buy pre-shredded carrots; those are dry and would result in subpar muffins.
I handed these Carrot Cake Bran Muffins to my best friend as soon as she walked into my kitchen last week, and she sampled a small bite… Which lead to the entire muffin. She said that these were even better than the last ones—maybe even the best muffins she’s ever had!
That made my heart melt into a warm, cozy, cinnamony puddle. ♥
| Carrot Cake Bran Muffins | | Print |
- 1 ½ cups (180g) oat bran (measured like this and gluten-free if necessary)
- ⅓ cup (80g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup (80mL) nonfat milk
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120g) whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ¼ cup (60mL) honey
- ¼ cup (60mL) molasses
- 1 ½ cups (160g) shredded carrots (about 3 large, peeled first)
- 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, milk, and vanilla.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, 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. Fold in the shredded carrots.
- Divide the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350°F for 20-23 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.
Other readers have had success substituting wheat bran for the oat bran. I have not tried that myself and cannot personally vouch for that substitution.
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
Pure maple syrup or agave may be substituted for the honey. Do not substitute pancake syrup because it will not produce the same taste or texture. I don’t recommend substituting anything for the molasses; it’s required to produce the iconic bran muffin flavor. (And you'll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
Do not buy pre-shredded carrots. They are not as moist and will result in subpar muffins.
{clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
More bran muffin recipes from other food bloggers…
♥ Mixed Fruit and Nut Buttermilk Bran Muffins by The View From Great Island
♥ Blueberry Peach Bran Muffins by Healthy. Delicious.
♥ Glazed Pumpkin Bran Muffins by Lauren’s Latest
♥ Maple Pecan Bran Muffins by Foxes Love Lemons
these were edible when slathered in salted butter; otherwise, a very dense and tasteless recipe (as others noted, smelled great when cooking, but didn’t translate to flavor!)
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Marva! That’s not how they’re supposed to turn out at all, so I’d love to work together to figure out why your muffins turned out like that. 🙂 How did you measure the oat bran? Did you use measuring cups or a kitchen scale? Also, did you make any substitutions to the recipe? We’ll get this sorted out — I promise!
My muffins came out looking nothing like yours. Once I added the oat bran to the milk, yogurt, vanilla combo it immediately soaked up all of the liquid and I thought “uh oh.” But I stuck with the recipe because I like to do everything “by the book” the first time. I measured everything correctly (spooning the bran and the flour from container to measuring cups), double checked quantities, etc. The batter was super dry and honestly I think that a tooth pick would have come out clean inserted into raw muffins.
My results were muffins with crusty tops and I don’t know if I would say dry but definitely chewy and leaving you feeling like you need some liquid to help get it down. Maybe this is a bran muffin thing – I don’t eat them a lot but was looking for a way to incorporate more fiber in our diets.
My milk and yogurt were 2%. Could that make all the difference?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Molly! Let’s figure out what happened so your muffins turn out perfectly tender! 🙂 The 2% milk and yogurt shouldn’t make that big of a difference. It actually sounds like there was too much bran in your muffins! If you don’t own a kitchen scale, here’s what I recommend doing for measuring oat bran (and flour, cocoa powder, oats, 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 oat bran 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, so you’ll end up with moist and tender muffins. Does that make sense? 🙂
I enjoy baking recipes that weigh ingredients, as that is a much more accurate and consistent method…BUT, I’ve found what may be causing many people to have POOR results with this recipe (which has a lot of potential). The oat bran lists 1 1/2 c or 180g…according to my package of bran a 1/4c=15g, so 1 1/2c=90g. Your listed weight is DOUBLE the amount to equal 1 1/2c! Unfortunately, I discovered this after my muffins were in the oven. My batter was so dry that I doubled the liquid, yogurt, and egg (and wondered where I had gone wrong). The muffins are ok, but not as good as I know they will be when the proper amount of bran (by weight) is used.
If I could edit my comment and stars then I would! I realized I used wheat bran, NOT the oat bran your recipe CALLS FOR…and as I just learned, they do not substitute for each other by weight! Oat bran is heavier per cup. I’m remaking this recipe tomorrow with oat bran and I’m confident that it will be great! Along with improper measuring, I’m guessing a fair number of people baking by weight may be substituting wheat bran for the oat bran like I did.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Holly! Thanks for mentioning the wheat bran sub — you’re totally right! Wheat bran is much, much lighter than oat bran. So crazy, isn’t it? 🙂 I can’t wait to hear how your oat bran muffins turn out!
Can we use whole wheat flour instead i dont have oat bran in the house :/
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Sena! Unfortunately, the oat bran is a required ingredient. However, I do have a recipe for carrot cake mini muffins that doesn’t use oat bran and can easily be made into standard-sized muffins! You can find that recipe here. That may be better for you! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try either muffin recipe!
Maybe I didn’t measure well enough with the recipe, but they came out really dense, and not very flavorful so my kids aren’t a fan, and I have to put honey on it to make it more palatable. I’m sorry to leave a bad review, I probably should have read everyone else’s reviews first. I didn’t realize these were ultra healthy type muffins, I was expecting more carrot cake with bran. But, thanks for your website, I’m still excited to try more of your recipes.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Stephanie! Let’s get those issues sorted out. 🙂 If the muffins were dense and not too flavorful, then it does sound like there was too much flour or oat bran. How did you measure the oat bran and flour? Did you use measuring cups or a kitchen scale? If the former, can you describe in detail what you did to measure? Also, if your kids prefer sweeter muffins, you can add another 2-3 tablespoons of honey! The muffins may require a little extra time to finish baking, but that’s the only modification you should have to make!
I really enjoyed these. I appreciated that the quantities were given in g and ml, since we don’t use cups much in Europe.
I think the oat bran may be different too, because the mixture of bran, milk and yogurt was very dry. I judged that more milk would be necessary and added about 60ml to make a soft batter – and the muffins were perfect. Had to give my son most of them for his band or I would have eaten them all.
I wouldn’t call them exactly healthy, but healthier than many other sweet baked goods, for sure. Oat bran is an important ingredient in reducing blood cholesterol, I understand, but you need to eat it daily.
Thanks so much for all the details on your pages.
I’m so glad you and your son enjoyed these muffins Troy! That’s really interesting about the bran being so dry… I wonder if oat bran is slightly different in Europe, like you suggested!
I’d love to make these as mini-muffins. Have you tried these in mini form and if so do you have any suggestions on cooking times? Most recipes seem to call for 12-14 minutes, but I’m not sure if that’s the same with bran muffins.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Elizabeth! I haven’t tried making these as mini muffins, but I’m sure it’s possible. I’d start checking on them after about 10 minutes. They’ll probably need a bit more time, but I don’t want you to wait too long to check and end up with burnt mini muffins! 😉 They’ll be done when the centers feel firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of them!
11-12 minutes seemed right for my pans. Thank you!
Of course! And thank YOU for taking the time to let me know — I really appreciate it, Elizabeth! 🙂
Hi Amy,
I made these today and I really like them! I was looking for a healthy but tasty recipe using oat bran and carrots. The muffins are dense but I like them that way! We had them with a cup of tea.
I didn’t have any molasses or greek yogurt, so I used 1/2 cup of honey and full fat milk with a teaspoon of vinegar stirred into it. The bran mixture was sticky but it blended in well with the other liquids and the flour, making a thick (but not dry) batter. I’m thinking these might work out well with buttermilk….
I look forward to baking these again when I have yogurt and molasses!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins, Ruth! That means a lot to me that you’d like to bake them again. That’s the best kind of compliment — thank you! 🙂 And I bet you’re exactly right about the buttermilk; that sounds like a great thing to try!
So disappointed with the recipe..I wish I had not wasted the time
I’d love to help you sort through any issues that you saw Mary! What was disappointing about your muffins? If you can describe their flavor and texture, we can fix any issues you saw so your muffins turn out much better if you decide to make them again! 🙂
I made these muffins today and they were delicious!
I used wheat bran instead of oat bran as I still haven’t found a retailer with oat bran (must be missing something here!). I used 2% Greek yogourt, whole milk, and maple syrup since it’s what I had on hand.
I baked some of the batter in silicone muffin liners on a Silpat baking mat. The rest of the batter I scooped into mounds using a cookie scoop to have more of a “muffin top” result. Everything turned out wonderfully! Thank you for this tasty healthy recipe that I was able to enjoy with my whole family!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins Inta! That means so much to me! 🙂 I love your muffin top baking idea — that sounds so fun! I’ll have to give that a try sometime!