How Did That Get There?
Don’t let the chocolate bars in the picture fool you, there is no chocolate in these muffins. Don’t let that dissuade you from making them though, they’re honey bran muffins with blueberries and they complete any breakfast. The reason for the chocolate bars is that they’re what I found while making these muffins. I reached into the baking cupboard to pull out the brown sugar and three chocolate bars fell out. I didn’t put them there and I wasn’t supposed to find them either. My Dad put them there, somehow thinking he was hiding them. When I find things like chocolate ‘hiding’ in the baking cupboard I can’t help but laugh. This is the last place in the house that anyone should try to hide something from me. I am the primary baker in the house, (I wanted to type only, but I thought that might garner some indignation from Mom, the baker who hasn’t actually baked anything in years…) and as such, I use that cupboard on an almost daily basis as it houses such essential ingredients as baking powder and soda, sugar, vanilla, dried fruit, etc… And yet this is a common hiding place for Dad’s chocolate stash. He knows that if he leaves the chocolate laying out in the open, I’ll eat it but doesn’t think I’ll find it if it’s tucked behind the brown sugar. In reality, the only person this chocolate remains hidden from is Mom, the other ‘baker’. I find this funny to no end. But even if you don’t share my sense of humour, I encourage you to bake these muffins. They come together in minutes and everyone loves a warm treat from the oven with their breakfast. Tip: If you make them with blueberries you’ll be forgiven for stealing chocolate from the secret hiding spot in the baking cupboard.
Honey Bran Muffins
(From Muffin Mania by Cathy Prange and Joan Paula)
1 cup natural bran
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup butter or margarine
½ cup brown sugar
2 T honey
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries, (optional, these are Dad’s addition)
Soak bran in buttermilk while preparing the rest.
Cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in the honey and egg. Add the bran and buttermilk.
Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add dry ingredients and stir until moistened. If you’re using blueberries, add them now.
Bake at 375 °F for 15-20 minutes.
