Bran-flakes Muffins are one of my favorite things to bake. They have my favorite cereal, their quick, easy and best of all cheap. Today I’m going to show you step by step how to make them and hopefully inspire more people to get into the kitchen. Like I was always told in chemistry class; be sure to read all the instructions before you start the “experiment” and make sure you everything you need is laid out from the beginning. There are also some tips and tricks I’ve included at the end which you’ll find helpful as well.
Ingredients: For approximately 12 Muffins
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1cup sugar
- 1 cup bran-flakes
- ½ cup raisins
- 2/3 cup cooking oil
- 2 cups Milk
- 1 egg , lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
(see links at the end for conversions to grams and ml)
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Ingredients
Required Instruments
- 2 mixing bowls
- Medium sized muffin tray
- Set of measuring cups/Kitchen scale
- Kitchen brush
- Small tea strainer
- Set of measuring spoons or a tablespoon and 2 teaspoons
- Ice-cream scoop (optional)
Instruments
Directions
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180°C
Oven Temperature
Step 2: Grease and flour the muffin tray.
Greasing- Step1
Greasing – Step2
Take the kitchen brush and lightly dip it into some cooking oil, then oil the bottom and sides of each muffin slot. Make sure it’s a thin layer, not too much.
Flouring -Step1
Flouring- Step2
Then take the tea strainer and sprinkle flour gently over the muffin tray. Lift up the tray and evenly distribute the flour till the sides of the muffin slots are evenly coated. (Best thing is to do this by the sink)
Greased and Floured
Step 3: Place the Bran-flakes in one of the boils and add the milk. This allows the bran-flakes to soften just for about 2 minutes or so. I use Kellogg’s but any bran-flakes of your choice should work fine.
Bran-flakes with Milk
Notice I used sour milk because I think it’s creamier. However mine is homemade cause I live on a farm so it readily available. Shop bought sour milk is likely to be a bit too sour so I would suggest using regular milk.
Step 4: In the second bowl, measure out the dry ingredients and mix them together. I.e. flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and raisins.
Dry ingredients
Dry Ingredients
Step 5: To the first bowl, add the lightly beaten egg and cooking oil. Mix together, just till ingredients are evenly spread out.
Combining Wet Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
I didn’t add the egg cause of my allergies. So since the egg in muffins plays a binding role I added 1 tablespoon of custard powered instead as the substitute.
Step 6: Mixing – Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add them all at once or in two large batches depending on the size of your mixing bowl.
Wet and Dry Ingredients
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients
Muffin Mixture
Mix them together until just mixed but DO NOT OVER MIX. That is the secret to muffin baking. Ignore the thickness, ignore the lumps. Just make sure there is no dry flour is present. If necessary add a tablespoon of water till no more dry flour can be seen.
Step 7: Take the ice-cream scoop and a small glass of cold water mixed with a teaspoon of oil. Dip the scoop in the water and scoop a portion of the muffin mix and drop into one of the muffin slots of the tray. Fill all the muffin slots, dipping the scoop in water after every 2-3 scoops so that the mixute doesn’t stick to the ice-cream scoop.
Filling Muffin Tray
ice-cream scoop + oil/water mixture
Scooping Mixing
The ice-cream scoop makes it easier to fill the tray but a large table spoon works just as well.
Filled Muffin Tray
Step 8: Place the muffin tray in the pre-heated oven and allow to cook for 20 minutes +5 minutes on a low to mid-height position in the oven. Bake until lightly browned on top.
Placed in Oven
Step 9: Once done, remove from the oven and place on a heat resistant surface. Wait 5minutes before removing the muffins from the trays.
Baked Muffins
After 5minutes, remove the muffins by lifting the sides of the muffins with a small knife.
Remove from Tray
Place the muffins on a cooling rack or oven rack to further cool.
Place on Cooling Rack
Cooled Muffins
Step 10: Make yourself a cold or hot beverage and enjoy!!
Branflakes Muffins
Other variations:
Oatmeal muffins: Replace the Bran-flakes with fast cooking oats and reduce the flour to 1 ½ cups instead of 2 cups. Follow the procedure as above.
Banana Muffins: Replace the Bran-flakes with 3-4 large very ripe bananas that have been mashed. Reduce the amount of milk used to 1 ½ cups instead of 2cups. No need to soak the bananas in the milk, just be sure to mash the banana first cause it takes a bit of time. Add the banana with the wet ingredients. The riper the banana the less sugar required. I usually use ½ cup of sugar when I bake banana muffins. Also, there is no need to mash the bananas till they are smooth, a slightlychunky mash works just as well.
Cereal Muffins: A question I usually get asked is; can you replace bran-flakes with cornflakes? I say yes. I personally don’t like cornflakes so I don’t like the taste of cornflakes muffins. However, you can use this recipe for any of your favorite cereals in fact. Just remember that if they are cereals that get soggy or mushy when they soak up milk with just leave out the soaking time and add them with the dry ingredients.
Additional Optional Ingredients: In muffins, you can add any dried fruits and nuts of your choice. I add raisins because their easy to find and add sweetness which allows me to reduce the sugar I put in the muffins. Plus you can add as much as you like of them. Alternatively, dried fruits and nuts can be left out altogether.
More Tips and Tricks
- An alternative to the grease and flour method of greasing the muffin tray is to use paper cups or a non-stick kitchen spray if they are available. I generally don’t like paper muffin cups unless I’m baking cup-cakes and non-stick spray is rare and expensive.
- When measuring the ingredients, be sure to level out the cup or spoon measurements. Do not heap the cups or the spoon. Only heap when the recipe states to heap the cup or spoon.
- I have included some of the measurements in grams incase others don’t have measuring cups but only have a kitchen scale. Here is a link that will help you make future conversions from cups to grams and ml. (Bear in mind that 1cup of flour and 1cup of sugar won’t translate to the same mass in grams), also if need be these links can also convert the measurements to ounces.
http://allrecipes.com/howto/cup-to-gram-conversions/
http://www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml
That’s all from the muffin factory. This is just the beginning of recording my culinary adventure. Happy Eating
I.Am.Linah
iamlinah 