All Bran Muffins

When I was a kid, I remember making All-Bran Muffins from the recipe on the side of the box of All-Bran cereal. That was the only reason my mom bought the cereal- no one seemed to like to eat it straight. Not to be confused with All-Bran flakes, when you pour this cereal in a bowl, it looks like a bird's nest of tiny twigs, so as you can imagine, it's a little "rough" and of course, high in fiber.

I found a similar cereal at Trader Joe's called "High Fiber Cereal"-catchy, huh? The classic "front of the box" cereal picture of the contents in a bowl with some milk and of course fresh strawberries (which the cereal manufacturers seem to think you can get any time of the year) reminded me of the classic All-Bran. I picked up a box and decided to find the recipe.

Apparently, there's a new version of the old All-Bran muffin recipe. Not sure why they'd change something that tastes so good...but I easily found the classic one we made years ago. I did make one change for the better. Instead of using all-purpose flour, I use white whole wheat flour, made from white wheat as opposed to red wheat and often found under the label "Whole Wheat Pastry Flour". I've made the recipe three times in the last two weeks and the muffins do not make it past 2 days in this house. Lou's been scarfing them down in threes.

All-Bran Whole Grain Muffins

2 cups All-Bran Cereal or Trader Joe's High Fiber Cereal
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Butter a standard 12-muffin tin. If it's a non-stick pan, you can butter the bottoms only.

In large bowl, combine cereal and milk. Let stand for 10 minutes or until the cereal is soggy.
Meanwhile, stir together remaining dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. When cereal has sufficiently softened, add the egg and oil and stir well. Then, fold in the flour mixture and stir just until combined.

Fill the prepared muffin tin and bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.