Applesauce Bran Muffins

In the two years since we last had internet, I've found some "keeper" recipes that I'll be sharing. Since I made these applesauce bran muffins last night, it reminded me that this was one of those recipes. I first made them a while back when I had some leftover homemade applesauce and googled "applesauce muffins". It's from the Canadian Living website.

One of the things I like is that they don't have a lot of sugar. In fact, the recipe only calls for 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup molasses and that's not bad for 18 muffins! They're sweet but not overly so. They have a dense texture, so don't expect a cake-like muffin. I think they're great for breakfast, along with cheesy scrambled eggs, but they also make a nice afternoon snack all by themselves.

I do have to tell you about the first time I made them: I used raisins from the health food store (which is the only place I can find them here) and they had seeds in them! Which we didn't find out until we were eating the muffins -- and spitting out the seeds :) Thankfully I've now found a source of seedless raisins.

Now that y'all are heading into fall in the U.S., this is a good recipe for those cooler mornings. After a week of unseasonably warm weather here (high 80s), the temperature dropped on Saturday night and we're back to "normal" (30s/40s at night and into the 60s during the day). It felt good to turn the oven on to make these muffins, because it warmed up the kitchen space a little. Probably be doing more baking in the next few weeks since we still have almost a month of winter left.

Applesauce Bran Muffins

(makes 18 muffins)

1 egg

1 cup applesauce

2/3 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup wheat bran

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup raisins 

Preheat oven to 375.
Combine first 7 ingredients (egg through vanilla). Add bran, stir well and allow to sit for five minutes.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Pour wet ingredients over top, and sprinkle with raisins
Mix until combined and no streaks of flour remain.
Fill muffin cups to top with batter.
Bake 25 minutes. Cool in pans 5 minutes. Life out of pans onto racks and let cool.