When I worked at the Big Yellow Box at their world headquarters many moons ago, they used to staff their own kitchens with their own workers who made homemade delights five days a week. Oh, they had a TO-DIE-FOR walnut cake that was out of this world. Their homemade soups were stupendous. And they also made all their own muffins.
Mind you, when I'd leave the building on any given night, the air would smell heavenly -- just like a bran muffin. It was actually the brewery across the river, but it smelled like breakfast to me.
And what did I love most at breakfast time? Their marvelous bran muffins with raisins. Several times a week I'd buy a bran muffin for my morning meal and hope that the guy in the with the gray eyes would be up at the cafeteria taking a coffee break so I could wave to him. (Yeah, I ended up marrying the big lug.)
Fast forward way too many years. The company went down the toilet, and long ago let go all their kitchen staff, and the company that took over the eats tossed out all the old favorite recipes. The food wasn't as good, and the company ... well, let's just say the stock options I have are worth dog poop.
But I remember those muffins. And I recently bought a bag of bran flour in hopes of recreating them.
My first attempt was not satisfactory. I think my oven runs a little hot. But they also weren't sweet enough. I got the recipe from a 1930s cookbook. "Hmmm," says I, "I'll find a better recipe on the Internet."
NOT!
Every recipe I've found wants to use bran CEREAL, not bran flour. Like the actual flour is something that became extinct back in the days of the dinosaur.
So, I guess I'll have to tweak that 1930s recipe (Angelica would be proud of me) until it tastes just right.
In the meantime, has anybody got a bran muffin recipe that uses real bran flour (and without buttermilk or molasses)? If so, will you share?
