blue sky bran muffins
I am likely the last person in New York City to learn about muffins, and it’s all my fault because I wasn’t paying attention. Why would you, really? Most coffee shops don’t sell muffins worth noting. You can only audition so many flavorless, greasy, tight-crumbed, massive metallic-tasting muffins before not even looking in bakery cases when you go in for your morning fix. , however, are not suspicious — they are insistent. So, one morning over spring break (something you dread when you’re in preschool, live for in high school and college, and I’m sorry to admit, lightly dread again as a parent), when I tried to make the most of our more leisurely mornings with excursions, we got in the terrible habit of splitting one of their fruit-filled bran muffins each morning and by the end of the week, we were so addicted that I had to make them at home.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 11 of 15 ingredients — the other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 11 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Sunflower | 1 oz (28g) hulled | 165 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Vegetable | 1 tbsp (14g) | 120 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Yogurt | 170g plain Greek | 100 |
| Pineapple | 1 cup chunks (165g) | 82 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Vanilla | 1 tsp extract (4ml) | 12 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Safflower | not in our table | 0 |
| Citrus | not in our table | 0 |
| Wheat | not in our table | 0 |
| Fruit | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups (315 ml) buttermilk (you can also use sour cream or yogurt thinned with a little milk)
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) oil (such as vegetable, safflower, sunflower or olive oil)
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) lightly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract, a little citrus zest (optional flavorings to add)
- 1 1/2 cups (90 grams) wheat bran*
- 1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) baking powder (preferably aluminum-free)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 2 teaspoons (10 grams) granulated sugar, divided
- 3/4 to 1 cup chopped mixed fruit (just about anything but citrus or pineapple will work, they say; frozen berries are fine)