January is a good time to revaluate your dry stores and cupboards of canned or jarred bits and bobs that you put up in seasons past. Mine are always bran heavy and pretty apple molasses rich after months (years) of making sure no fruit glut goes to waste.
Jams, marmalades, rich concentrated fruit purees and molasses abound for testing in place of conventional sugar. Not so much to avoid the use of conventional sugar altogether but more to make use of resources to hand and reimagine what sweetness actually tastes like.
And let’s just talk about the elephant in the room…the 0.5 egg…I never thought I’d write a recipe to specify half an egg for fear of the faff, but let’s be realistic…eggs are becoming more and more damn precious. Especially good quality ones! And yes I could’ve made 12 muffins but in a house of two people, 6 bran muffins is more than sufficient.
Plus I’d seen some cookies in the new Rose Levy Beranbaum Cookie Bible that I wanted to try for Lunar New Year vibes and they called for half an egg so there’s that. Resourcefulness = no end of rewards.
Oh and on the subject of being resourceful, I feel switching on the oven to bake just 6 muffins is asking a lot so prep a tray of veggies to roast alongside for mid week meals.
Anyway I digress…the muffins, yes the muffins. As I said re-evaluating sweetness, something I am always thinking about when baking. Sweetness in this recipe is obtained first through the scalding of the bran then through the addition of marmalade and apple molasses and finally a small amount of dark brown sugar that sure, functions as flavour, but also structure.
Ingredients - Makes 6 muffins
For the scald
60g wheat bran
230g buttermilk
Dry mix
105g wholemeal wheat flour (I used Ølands)
35g fresh milled wholegrain cereal or pseudo cereal (wheat/barley/quinoa/amaranth/get diverse, this can also be replaced with an equal amount of wholemeal flour)
3g bicarbonate of soda (roughly 1/2tsp + 1/8th tsp)
1/4tsp sea salt
1/4tsp ground cinnamon
15g soft dark brown sugar
Wet mix
23g melted butter, warm but not hot - note this is melted weight, if you want to brown it then ensure it weighs 23g post browning
25g egg (half a large egg)
40ml whole milk
75g marmalade
75g molasses (I used apple molasses which gave them a lighter flavour profile than treacle or blackstrap would)*
Optional - Demerara sugar to sprinkle
Method
Prep your muffin tin with liners or grease with oil/butter.
Set oven to 175 degrees C.
Place bran in a medium bowl. Warm the buttermilk gently until lukewarm, (any more and it may split), pour over the bran, stir together and set aside.
Weigh dry ingredients into a separate bowl and mix well to evenly distribute.
Combine the wet ingredients in a pouring vessel and mix well.
Add the wet ingredients to the scalded bran, combine, follow with dry ingredients, fold through until just combined.
Divide into prepared tin, sprinkle the top of each with Demerara sugar if using, bake for 18-20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean with a couple crumbs but no gum.
Eat warm with salted butter and honey. They will keep for 2 days or so in an airtight box and a quick blast in the microwarvey for 30 seconds restores them to former glory ready to receive salted butter and honey once again.
*Molasses will give a much richer flavour than the homemade apple molasses I used. An alternative would be to consider using honey or maple syrup for a more subtle, perceptively sweeter profile.
Love the use of marmalade in the recipe! I have many jams and marmalade that I love to use like this! Extra flavour! Orange marmalade in a nutella microwave mug cake is very good...