Bran muffins have always been the Debbie Downer of breakfast. Even when they're not being categorically written off as dowdy and boring, someone is villainizing them as, essentially, liar health food.
This has been a lose-lose life for you, bran muffins, and we’re about to make it all better.
Nancy Silverton might not seem to be a likely champion of bran — she's a chef beloved for her pizza crust and pastries, and we've celebrated her whipped cream in high-mounded bowlfuls.
But smart pastry chefs like Silverton, who are exposed constantly to the desserts that others only experience occasionally — and who know exactly what goes into them — are perhaps the most likely people to crave genuinely healthful ways of making sweets. (See also: Kim Boyce's "Good to the Grain," Alice Medrich's "Flavor Flours," Anita Shepherd of Anita's Yogurt.) They're also in the best position to do something about it.
Silverton was uninspired by bran muffin recipes that called for processed bran cereals and lots of sugar. So she built a recipe based on unprocessed bran, which is pretty easy to find at health food stores and online. She toasts the bran briefly to develop the flavor, but otherwise stirs it straight in — so there really is no reason for using cereal, other than the fact that cereal marketers are good at their jobs.
To cut back on both some of the sugar and some of the fat, she also plumps raisins in simmering water, then purées them, which gives the muffins loads of moisture and a jammy sweetness that suits the earthy breakfast milieu well.
This is a muffin so flavorful and so squidgy that even I, a flagrant over-butterer, don’t feel the need. But go ahead — sometimes I do it anyway.
Adapted slightly from "Pastries from La Brea Bakery" (Random House, 2000)
Makes 10 muffins (or 12 smaller ones)
2 cups unprocessed bran
1 1/2 cups raisins, divided
1 1/2 cups water, divided
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. orange zest, finely chopped (about 1/3 of an orange)
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 extra-large egg
1 extra-large egg white
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup stone-ground whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Lightly coat a muffin tin with 1/2-cup capacity cups with melted butter, and fit a pastry bag with a large tip (if desired). Set aside.
Adjust the oven rack to the middle setting, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spread the bran on the baking sheet and toast for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring halfway through to make sure it doesn’t burn.
In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of the raisins and 1 cup of water and simmer on low heat until the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Place in a blender or in a food processor fitted with the steel blade, and process until puréed.
Pour the bran into a large bowl, add the buttermilk and remaining 1/2 cup water, and stir to combine. Stir in the raisin purée, orange zest, and brown sugar.
Add the oil, the whole egg, and the egg white, mixing well to combine.
Sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the raisin mixture. Add the remaining whole raisins and stir to combine.
Fill the pastry bag half full and pipe or spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling the cups to just over the rim and mounding the batter slightly.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until the muffins are well-browned and firm to the touch.
This article originally appeared on Food52.com: http://food52.com/blog/12615-nancy-silverton-s-bran-muffins
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