Pumpkin Bran Muffins
Susan, my wife, picked out this pumpkin muffin recipe and I thought is more than appropiate this time of year. I had little doubt it would turn out coming from one of my favorite souces, King Arthur Flour(KAF) . Honestly, I can’t remember a KAF recipe I’ve made that wasn’t outstanding and this recipes keeps the string going.
Adapted from and inspired by a recipe on www.kingarthurflour.com
Click here for recipe
1 C (2 ¼/60 g) bran flakes cereal
4 T (4 T/157 g) melted unsalted butter
½ C (3 ½ oz/99 g) granulated sugar
2 T (1 oz/28 g) brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
¾ C (170 ml) buttermilk room temperature
1 ¼ C (6 ¼ oz/177 g) all-purpose flour
½ t (3 g) salt
½ t (1 g) ground ginger
½ t (1 g) ground allspice
¼ t ground cinnamon
1 t (4 g) baking soda
1 t (4 g) baking powder
1 C (5 oz/142 g) dried cranberries or raisins
white sparkling sugar, for sprinkling
In large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, bran cereal, butter, and sugars. Stir in eggs and buttermilk. In separate medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, spices, baking soda, and baking powder.
Fold in dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture, then stir in dried cranberries (or raisins). Cover batter bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Place oven rack in middle position and heat to 375° F (191° C). Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan, or line the wells with papers. Scoop batter into prepared pan, using heaping ¼ cup of batter for each muffin. Sprinkle tops with sugar.
Bake muffins for 25 to 28 minutes or toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Rotate pan one half turn midway through baking.
Remove muffins from oven and cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning them out on to wire rack to finish cooling.
Store muffins at room temperature, well-wrapped, for up to three days; freeze for longer storage.
Makes 12 muffins
Click here for Baker's Notes
15 Oct 18 – My first attempt was a total failure. It began with using an off-brand pumpkin puree that was left over from a previous baking project. I didn’t like the taste then and I found the muffins also had the same unpleasant flavor as well. In the future, I will always use Libby’s puree. I assembled the recipe as written with the following exceptions. I used 5 oz for a cup of flour rather than 4 ½ oz called for by KAF. The recipe called for using raisins or dried cranberries. I used golden raisins. The wet & dry ingredients came together as expected and once combined, I refrigerated the batter over night rather than the minimum 4 hrs suggested by the recipe. The batter filled a 12-muffin pan, without liners, plus 3 additional of a 6-muffin pan. I baked the muffins in the island oven on convection heat @ 350 degrees for 25 mins. Even though the muffins passed the toothpick test, they were very much under done. The muffins when flipped over after cooling removed easily from their pans. Susan liked the flavor but I’m going to reserve judgement until I remake them with Libby’s pumpkin puree.
16 Oct – Remade batter with the only difference from yesterday, I used golden raisins because I used up all my dried cranberries and I only plan to refrigerate batter 4 hrs in lieu of overnight. And most importantly, I used Libby’s pumpkin puree. Otherwise, assembly was the same. I used all the batter to fill the 12 muffin cups. Some were filled slightly above paper liners. I used paper wraps and baked in island oven on radiant 380° F heat for 27 mins. Tops rose nicely and tested done at 27 mins and I took them out at 28 just to make sure they were baked through. Flavor and texture were good especially the first morning although they quickly went downhill the second and third mornings probably due to high moisture content. Nuts, pecans, would have been a nice addition and I would consider them in making them in the future.