Throughout my childhood, my family occasionally stopped by Mimi’s Café for a casual weekend brunch. The nearest location sat in the same parking lot as the movie theater in the next town over, so we always tried to arrive early enough to beat the matinee moviegoers and snag a decent parking spot.
Once inside and seated amongst the French-inspired décor, we perused the breakfast menu, and each of us turned to a different section. Dad started with the savory egg dishes, especially the omelettes and Benedicts; Mom flipped to the French toast; my brother looked at the pancakes; and I turned to the waffles. I loved their deep squares, which were perfect for holding lots of butter and maple syrup!
Although fairly cautious for the first few years we dined there, eventually I began to bravely ask Dad for a bite of whatever adventurous meal he ordered. I started with the relatively harmless rosemary roasted potatoes (I already knew I liked that vegetable!) on the side of his plate, then worked up to the ham, cheese, and mixed roasted veggie omelette and rather spicy Santa Fe omelette too.
Yet out of everything that I sampled, I loved the warm honey bran muffin he requested as a side the most. Those jumbo-sized treats were so moist that they practically fell apart if you picked them up and always required a fork. If we sat on the same side of the table, I’d sneak bite after bite after bite until—whoops!—half of his muffin had magically disappeared! He started to order me my own after that…
And those Mimi’s muffins were exactly what these Zucchini Bread Bran Muffins reminded my family of when I baked them last week! They’re just as cozy and tender, although quite a bit healthier, and everyone snuck bite after bite until these disappeared just as quickly too!
Many traditional bran muffins contain extra oil to make them so tender, but not these! Instead, I have a secret trick: we soak the oat bran first. Before measuring any of the other ingredients, we’ll combine the oat bran with milk, yogurt, and vanilla (to bring out its sweet, slightly nutty flavor!) and let that mixture rest for 15-20 minutes.
This trick allows the oat bran to soften, similar to how my overnight oat recipes soften by sitting in yogurt. (Have you tried any of those? They’re some of the most popular recipes on my blog and perfect for quick protein-packed breakfasts!) If we added the dry oat bran along with the flour instead, it would quickly make the muffins dry and crumbly. Not good! By the time you’ve mixed together the rest of the ingredients, the oat bran will be ready to use.
Because I’m spice-obsessed these days, we’re adding both cinnamon and nutmeg to these muffins. Those spices are the reason my family loves this zucchini bread so much! They add an irresistible warm, cozy flavor. Don’t skip them!
The other really important ingredient is molasses. Molasses provides the iconic bran muffin flavor: deep, warm, cozy, and rich. Many readers have asked if they can substitute something else, but I highly recommend against that because the muffins just won’t taste the same. Molasses is shelf-stable, fairly inexpensive, and found at all regular grocery stores on the baking aisle. You can use it in gingerbread treats and granola too!
Now for the zucchini… I love packing as much into my baked goods as possible, but there’s a slightly problem with that. Zucchini contains a lot of moisture, which it releases while baking, and this often ruins the structure of baked treats and causes them to sink in the middle while cooling.
But you’re in luck! I have another simple trick for that: pat the zucchini dry with paper towels. This removes the excess moisture and allows us to add more zucchini than in typical recipes. Hooray! Just remember to measure the zucchini before patting it dry.
Then scoop the batter, bake, cool, and… EAT!
| Zucchini Bread Bran Muffins | | Print |
- 1 ½ cups (180g) oat bran (measured correctly)
- ⅓ cup (80g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ½ cup (120mL) nonfat milk
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120g) whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured correctly)
- 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 zucchini, patted dry*
- 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 and egg. Stir in the honey and molasses. Thoroughly mix in the bran mixture. Add in the flour mixture, stirring until just incorporated. Fold in the shredded zucchini.
- 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.
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk. Agave or maple syrup can be substituted for the honey. Do not substitute anything for the molasses; it gives the bran muffins their characteristic flavor.
The zucchini must be patted dry to remove excess moisture. This prevents the muffins from collapsing while they cool. To do so, lay a double-thick layer of paper towels onto a cutting board, and arrange the freshly shredded zucchini on top. Place another double-thick layer of paper towels on the zucchini, and gently press down until the top towel turns wet.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
Zucchini and bran together in a muffin! sounds awesome!!! Can’t wait to make these! 🙂
I hope you enjoy the muffins!
I live in a rural area and oat bran is not available. Can I pulse whole oats into a coarse crumb to substitute?
Yes, that should work Dee! Make sure you measure the oats in the same way outlined in the link in the Ingredients list. Too many oats will dry out the muffin batter! 😉 I can’t wait to hear what you think of the muffins!
I bet your kitchen smelled awesome while these muffins were baking away!!! They look amazing!! And I agree about the molasses. It totally adds to the flavor!!
You’re completely right Deborah — my family said that the kitchen smelled like Thanksgiving! 🙂
Bran muffins get a bad name, but they can be SO delicious! The zucchini is a great touch. I just baked myself some zucchini chocolate cake and it was tastyyyy. Yes…was. HAHA.
SO true about bran muffins! And I would give anything to try your chocolate zucchini cake Brittany… Especially if it came with a plane ticket! 😉
Amy
These are super YUMMY ! The only thing I added was a sprinkle of cinnamon/sugar on the tops before popping them in the oven : )
I love oat bran……with a whirl of molasses and cinnamon for breakfast but would of never figured out to use it to make muffins.
Here in the south…we LOVE molasses, so I always have that on hand.
Another keeper for sure, thanks !
I’m so glad you enjoyed the muffins Kimberly! There’s never anything wrong with extra cinnamon sugar. I used to eat cinnamon sugar toast for breakfast as a kid! 😉
Amy, can I substitute unprocessed wheat bran for the oat bran? Would I need to soak it like you did for the oat bran?
Yes, you can substitute wheat bran! Follow the same exact instructions as if you were using oat bran; you do not need to modify the recipe in any way. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the muffins Michelle!
I just subbed wheat bran for oat bran. A word of warning – I was measuring by the grams rather than the volume, and when I weighed out 180 g it was clearly wayyyyy more ham 1.5 cups. Not sure if this would be true for all wheat bran or just the type I had on hand, but I found that it worked better to stick with the 1.5 cups!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Shellie! You’re correct — it’s much better to substitute the bran based on volume, rather than weight. Wheat bran is lighter in weight than oat bran, so 1.5 cups should weigh much less. (I used to be a chemist, so I love nerdy aspects of baking ingredients like that! 🙂 ) I hope you enjoyed these muffins!
I loved the muffins and they were a hit with my husband and two year old. I made thyme as mini muffins and baked for approximately 22 minutes at 335 F.
I’m so thrilled to hear that Shellie! That means a lot to me that your husband and child enjoyed these muffins too! 🙂
Hi Amy,
I just baked these yesterday. They turned out delicious. But, I did not add honey (only the molasses). So, they were not really sweet. The thing is I am trying to lose weight. Is there a substitute for honey or molasses that is not too high in calorie?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Amy! What’s your preferred no-calorie sweetener? We can probably adapt this recipe to use that! 🙂
I’m sorry but these are terrible. Spent a lot of money on wheat flour, molasses and oat bran and made them for a women’s group for brunch. Not one of the women could eat them. Comments ranged from dry, bland, tasteless to absolutely not edible.