Somebutter Bran Muffins

 

I know, I know, I’ve been digging a lot through the Weelicious Lunches cookbook recently, but there are just so many good recipes in there! I had recently tried Wow Butter to make sandwiches for my kids (PB&J without the PB for school), and it turns out they don’t like it. But I didn’t want to just throw out the jar, so I decided to use it in cooking. And here was this recipe for sunflower butter bran muffins, which I actually wouldn’t make as is because the chlorophyll in sunbutter could make the muffins turn blue. I’m obviously not going to recommend that you buy Wow Butter just for this, but I don’t know other nut-free butters well enough to recommend one, so I leave that choice to you – hence the name, somebutter muffins. 

I couldn’t find plain bran flakes in the cereal aisle, so I used Special K Chocolatey Delight, knowing that there will be chocolate in this muffin anyway. (The Ghiradelli 72% cacao chocolate chips are relatively flat and blended in well with the chocolate morsels from the cereal.) I also realized that it’s important to break the cereal into little pieces before adding milk, which I did for the second batch, so I’m updating the instructions below. I’m not sure that the Special K is the best choice, because I think that the flakes are coated in sugar and this prevents them from breaking down properly in the milk, though they are still less noticeable than I would have thought in the finished muffins. The Fox finds them a bit too crunchy still, but the Little Prince thinks these are the best muffins ever! 

2 ½ cups bran flakes (from the cereal aisle) 

1 ¼ cups lactose-free milk 

1 cup all-purpose flour 

½ cup brown sugar 

1 Tbsp. baking powder 

½ tsp. salt 

1 large egg 

1/3 oil 

½ sunflower butter (see note above) 

½ cup chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 400 °F. Grease a 12-muffin pan. 

In a bowl, combine the bran flakes and milk and let sit for 5 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl with the cereal mixture, whisk in the egg, oil, and sunflower butter. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. 

Scoop the batter into the muffin cups, filling 2/3 of the way. 

Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (18 minutes did the trick for me). 

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.