I kid you not, these muffins are scrumptious. They are not one iota dry or tough and they have oodles of bran and ground flax seed so you truly can’t go wrong here. If you were ever going to give a healthy type berry muffin with oat bran and ground flax seeds a go, wouldn’t you want to try one that has been given the Sweet and Crumby (S&C) stamp of approval? Wouldn’t you want it to taste bad to the bone but be oh so angelic?

Then you have totally come to the right place today my friends. I mean who can you trust more than a self-proclaimed sweet-a-holic and chocolate obsessed baking fiend to lead you to a devilishly tasting bran muffin? These oat bran muffins are SOFT, a bit sweet, a tad crunchy on top, and are actually addicting. Yes, I said, ADDICTING!

Did you ever think you would stop by S&C for your good old fashioned dose of naughty sweets and think that you would see a bran muffin in these parts?! I never, ever in a gazillion years thought a bran muffin would have graced these pages. And then pigs flew, the cows came home and a gazillion years went by and poof, here we are with an S&C sponsored bran muffin. I guess stranger things have happened but not many.

Anyhow, I dare you to try these and not think, “Yummmmm”, when you take a bite and then I double dog dare you to not eat two. If I am wrong, I swear I will give you your money back, every last penny. 😉

S&C’s Own Original Blueberry Bran and Flaxseed Muffins

Makes about 15 medium-sized muffins
2 c. all purpose flour (or substitute some of the flour for whole wheat pastry flour)
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
2/3 c. ground flax seeds (found in bulk bins of supermarket usually)
2/3 c. oat bran
1/2 c. brown sugar (dark or light is fine)
1 egg
1 c. low-fat buttermilk (or substitute regular milk and add a tablespoon of lemon juice)
1/2 c. Canola oil
1 T. flour
1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries or mixed berries
1/4 c. turbinado sugar divided evenly on top of muffins (or use chopped nuts)

optional: substitute berries for raisins or cranberries for a twist on this recipe. The top pic are the muffins with raisins and the bottom pick are the berry ones. You can’t go wrong either way.

To make the muffins: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin pan with muffin cups.  You actually will need two muffin pans or just re-use the first one once the batch is done baking.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together, flour through brown sugar. In a separate medium-sized bowl, beat together egg through Canola oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently combine with a rubber scraper. No more whisking once you begin to combine wet and dry ingredients or it will toughen your batter and make for a tougher muffin. If your batter is a bit dry, then add another 1/4 c. of buttermilk to loosen it up a bit.

In a small bowl or you can use the medium-sized bowl that you used for the wet ingredients, add 1-2 T of all purpose flour and the blueberries. Toss to coat the blueberries. Coating the blueberries in flour will help them not to sink to the bottom of the muffins.  Gently stir the coated blueberries into your muffin batter.

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Top with a sprinkling of Turbinado sugar (or just granulated sugar if that’s what you have or chopped nuts). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are lightly firm to touch.