Old-fashioned Oatmeal Muffins

When I was a little girl, my grandma and my mom made the yummiest bran muffins. The batter could be made in advance and could stay in the fridge for a few weeks, and when we smelled them baking we ran to the fridge to grab the butter and sat waiting for them to cool enough to eat. There was no better after-school snack then these fresh muffins. It's still a good recipe, but I updated it to make the ingredients easier to find and super easy to whip up and bake. No hunting down Bran Buds, no need to make the batter in advance. I mixed this recipe up at 7:30 this morning and by 7:55 AM we had warm muffins for breakfast. This recipe is pretty forgiving too; sub applesauce for half or all the oil, use some pumpkin in place of eggs or oil, add raisins or cranberries or chocolate chips, toss in some cinnamon....they will be delicious no matter what you do to them!

Here's the basic recipe, which makes 18 standard/generous muffins. You can make them mini or jumbo, suit yourself!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups All Bran or Trader Joe's Bran (this is cereal, not oat bran, please note!)
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats (I use Trader Joe's in the bag), not instant
• 2 cups low-fat buttermilk (if you don't have this you can use any type of milk you have/use!)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable/canola/grapeseed oil
• 1 scant cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour (you can do 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Pour buttermilk over bran and oatmeal and let sit for 5 minutes
• In the meantime, combine flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder 
• Stir cereal mixture, then add vanilla, eggs, oil and sugar to it and mix well
• Fold in dry mixture
• Spray 2 12-cup muffin tins with cooking or baking spray (best not to use paper muffin cups with these, they may stick to the paper)
• Use a large cookie scoop or tablespoon to fill up the muffin tins with the batter
• Bake 18-20 minutes, depending on your oven (I like to set the timer for 15 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 3-5 minutes until they are done)
• Use a butter knife to gently remove from the muffin tin and cool on a baking rack
• These will stay fresh in a food storage bag or container for 3 days, and they freeze really well

They are SOOO yummy warm with a drop of butter, or just warm, or cool, or cold, or anyway you like to eat them......Eat and enjoy!