Buttermilk bran muffins

I was excited to share with you the wonderful, fluffy, moist buttermilk bran muffins that I've been making for years.  I got the craving while we were away this weekend.  Our motel offered a complimentary continental breakfast, and while we usually pass up these freebies, preferring to seek out a charming local bakery or diner, this year we made a pact to get our money's worth and eat the free breakfast each day.  Feeling virtuous we popped over to the reception area every morning to get our rations...coffee and a thin slab of previously frozen 'blueberry' cake.  I won't go into the details, it was just bad.  But we dutifully ate it for 4 days.  Well, on the fourth day I just grabbed an apple from one of the trees out back.  

But all the while I was eating the pre-fab motel fare, I was planning to make my perfect bran muffins.  It's been over a year since I've made them, and by the time we got home I could almost taste the warm molasses and vanilla flavored muffins fresh from the oven. Imagine my surprise when I looked around the kitchen and realized that I didn't have a copy of the recipe.  It must have gotten shoved in a plastic bin along with most of my cookbooks and sent off to storage in the final days of packing last year. I searched my computer...no copy of it there.  I racked my brains to see if I could remember it, but no luck. 
With my heart set on buttermilk bran muffins, and the morning hours clicking away, I did the only thing I could do.  I turned to Ina Garten.  She has a wonderful Banana Bran Muffin. 

I altered her recipe a bit, so I'll write it out here.  I use a combination of oat and wheat bran, which I think gives a slightly lighter texture and sweeter flavor.  I don't use banana because I'm allergic, but if you like them you can add a cup of banana cut in chunks.

Buttermilk Bran Muffins (adapted from Ina Garten)
1/2 cup unprocessed wheat bran
1/2 cup oat bran
1 cup buttermilk (shaken)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
6 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
½ cup chopped walnuts

Mix the brans with the buttermilk and set aside.  In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar till fluffy.  Add in the eggs, one at a time.  Then the molasses and vanilla and blend it well.

In another bowl sift the dry ingredients together.  Add in the raisins and nuts.  Mix the dry into the wet until just incorporated, don't over mix.

Fill 10 muffin cups and bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  I am happy with these muffins, I would make them again.  If you're not eating them fresh out of the oven, remember to zap them in a microwave for 15 seconds.  Bran muffins freeze well, so you can put them in a zip lock baggie and pull them out anytime.

It's good to be home.