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Emma Hartwell

High-Fiber Breakfast Muffins (Oat Bran & Raspberry)

Moist wholemeal muffins at 5.7 grams of fiber each — roughly double a bakery bran muffin — and the trick is a fifteen-minute rest that lets the bran drink before it ever reaches the oven.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings: 12 muffins
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Calories: 224
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 very ripe bananas mashed well
  • 1 1/4 cups buttermilk or milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice, left 5 minutes
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup neutral oil
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups oat bran not oat flour, not rolled oats
  • 3 tbsp chia seeds
  • 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup frozen raspberries keep them frozen

Method
 

  1. Mash the bananas thoroughly in a large bowl — any lumps you leave become wet pockets in the baked muffin. Whisk in the buttermilk, eggs, oil, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth.
  2. Stir in the oat bran, chia seeds and ground flaxseed, then leave the bowl alone for 15 minutes. This is the step that makes the recipe work: the bran and seeds absorb liquid on a delay, and if they are still absorbing in the oven they pull moisture out of the crumb and the muffins come out dry. Use the time to heat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and line a 12-hole muffin tin.
  3. In a second bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
  4. Fold the dry mix into the rested batter just until no loose flour is visible, then stop. It will look lumpy — that is correct. Whole wheat flour builds gluten quickly and an over-mixed batter bakes rubbery.
  5. Fold through the raspberries straight from the freezer. Thawed berries bleed and turn the whole muffin purple-grey.
  6. Divide between the 12 cases, filling them nearly to the top — this batter barely spreads, so a small scoop gives a flat muffin.
  7. Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce to 350°F (175°C) without opening the door and bake another 20 minutes. The initial blast is what lifts the domes. They are done when the top springs back rather than dents under a finger; the toothpick test is unreliable with a batter this wet.
  8. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack.

Notes

Fiber: 68.6g across the batch, so 5.7g per muffin, computed from USDA values — 21.7g oat bran, 12.8g whole wheat flour, 12.4g chia, 8.0g raspberries, 7.6g flaxseed, 6.1g banana.
The rest is not optional. If you have no 15 minutes, mix the batter the night before and refrigerate it — an overnight rest is even better. Bake from cold with 2 extra minutes.
Oat bran is not oat flour. Bran is the outer layer of the grain and holds nearly all the fiber; oat flour is milled from the whole groat and brings much less. Rolled oats cost you about a gram a muffin.
Storage: 3 days airtight at room temperature, 3 months frozen. Wrap individually — a frozen muffin thaws on the counter in an hour or in 30 seconds in the microwave.