This raisin bran muffins recipe is a cut above the rest. Spiced and moist, my fruit and nut bran muffins are soft and loaded with fruit in every bite. Even folks who swear they hate bran, love these. Definitely the best bran muffins for all your picky eaters.
While raisin bran is a perfectly acceptable breakfast most mornings, it’s nothing to get excited about, right? Funny how it becomes so appealing when mixed with some fruit and toasted nuts then gets folded into a thick spiced batter. Fruit and nut bran muffins are WAY beyond your average fruit muffins recipe and healthier too!
If I’m being honest, I always have a box of raisin bran in the house and regularly (no pun intended) have it for breakfast. But every routine can sometimes feel like a rut – and that’s what prompted these fruit muffins.
What I like about this raisin bran muffins recipe is that they don’t taste like sawdust the way some muffins do. They’re loaded with fresh apples and cranberries plus some heady spices that add a great aroma while baking.
They really are simple to make and you can customize the add-ins based on your tastes. If you wanted to go “all apple” – then apple bran muffins it is, but there’s something about this fruit and nut blend that I think makes these muffins really special. They are tart and sweet, spiced and crunchy — and I could eat one after another without blinking an eye.
This fruit muffins recipe is super easy too… nothing more than mixing the wet ingredients with the dry and folding in the chopped fruit and nuts. If you prefer dried cranberries to fresh – go for it. Don’t have pecans? Use walnuts, or skip the nuts altogether.
This fruit and nut bran muffin recipe makes a fairly thick batter. Scoop it into your prepared muffin tins or paper liners (I like to spray my liners with vegetable spray so everything comes out easily) and bake until the fruit muffins are puffed and golden.
The fresh cranberries sort of melt and ooze into the batter, adding tart pockets of jam to the muffins.
This recipe makes about 15-18 full size muffins, but I only have one regular sized muffin tin — so I did the only sensible thing and got out my mini muffin tin and filled it up with batter too.
The baking time is different (less) for the mini muffins, but they came out just as well. In fact, I think the mini muffins would be great for a weekend brunch as a healthier alternative to full-on coffeecake!
Though not required, a smear of butter and drizzle of honey on a warm muffin will take you to the moon! Fruit and nut bran muffins are probably the best bran muffins I’ve ever had. I’d love to know what you think.
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Fruit and Nut Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups raisin bran cereal
- 1 ½ cups almond milk
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (can use canola oil)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 small granny smith apple peeled and finely chopped
- 1 cup fresh cranberries chopped, optional
- 1 cup pecans toasted and finely chopped
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place muffin liners into a muffin tin and spray the liners with a little nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. This makes 15-18 large muffins or 60-70 mini muffins. Or one tray of each (which is what I did) If making mini muffins, spray the tin with vegetable spray.
- In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Stir in cereal, almond milk, oil and vanilla. Let stand 10 minutes; stir to break up cereal.
- Meanwhile, place pecans on a baking sheet and toast them for 10 minutes, until crisp and fragrant. Remove from oven and roughly chop them. Set aside.
- While pecans are toasting, peel the apple and dice it into very small pieces. Chop the cranberries. When pecans are toasted, roughly chop them and add the nuts and chopped fruit into the cereal mix. Stir until blended.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar,cinnamon, cardamom, allspice and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
- Spoon evenly into muffin tins and bake. For regular sized muffins – bake 20-25 minutes. For mini muffins, bake 12-15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on a rack before serving.
Nutrition
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Nice idea to add apples and cranberries in these muffins. Simple and good recipe. Thanks for sharing.
This is a recipe that my mom would fall in love with. Totally sharing this with her!
That is such a great idea to use raisin bran! And I agree about adding some butter and honey…Mmmm good! 🙂
Raisin bran is bran without being sawdust, you know?
I’ll take a couple of these for breakfast right now!
Mmm… can you send a couple of these muffins over here? They look delicious! 🙂
This is a perfect breakfast treat and they look yummy I love to start off my morning with a good cup of coffee and a muffin like this one!
These muffins look amazing and so simple to make I cannot wait to try them! Do you think these would work well wirh Stevia instead of regular sugar?
I’ve never tried to substitute with Stevia, but if it has worked for you in the past, I don’t see why it wouldn’t here.
These fruit and nut muffins sound like a great way to start a busy morning.