muffins overnight

Don't freak out: I made bran muffins. I never thought I'd eat a bran muffin, much less make some but I had bran cereal left from these cookies and buttermilk from two other things so I figured there had to be some way to put them together. When I think of bran muffins I think dry, brown, hard as rocks, good-for-you, flavorless. While there's nothing wrong with the benefits of bran, this recipe for 2-Week Bran Muffins quelled my other fears. Does this look like a boring bran muffin to you?

(Ignore the phone shadow; it was a last-second decision to get a shot of these. :P )

The scent wafting from the oven and the texture of the first bite reminded me of corn muffins, so if you don't like that grittiness this isn't the muffin for you. But there's also plenty of moist muffin goodness thanks to the buttermilk, and the best part was my decision to use dried apricots. No way was I making a raisin bran muffin, so I diced the apricots as fine as I could and their overnight soak made them plump and juicy in the morning. I didn't even need to put the optional jam on mine. Just sweet enough; just flavorful enough.

I also cut the recipe in half and still managed to get twelve muffins. But I only had eleven muffin cups so you can see that one paperless muffin on the bottom left. (I know I could've left the batter in the fridge--hence the "2-week" name--but with everything that's going on right now I can't really bake weekday mornings.)

One more thing: a lesson in reading your recipe! The first step takes 45 minutes. I didn't realize that so I had some time to kill before putting the rest of the batter together. I still managed to add the water-soaked bran right when my timer went off.

This was really convenient and delicious and definitely recommended.