These Raisin Bran Muffins are perfectly soft and moist with a sweet, syrupy glaze on top. They’re great for breakfast, brunch, or a wholesome snack any time of day.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: Even though the ingredients list for this raisin bran muffins recipe looks long, most of the items are everyday baking staples you may already have on hand.
- Tender Texture: Pureed raisins and buttermilk help create soft and moist bran muffins the whole family will love.
- Hearty & Wholesome: These muffins are hearty and full of fiber thanks to the wheat bran, but the molasses, honey, and raisins give them just the right amount of sweetness to make them feel like a treat.
If you love raisins, check out our oatmeal raisin cookies and our no bake oatmeal raisin granola bars next.
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Ingredients
For the Muffins
- Wheat Bran and Wheat Flour: Provide structure for the muffin batter. If you’ve never bought wheat bran before, you can typically find it in the baking aisle or natural food aisle of your grocery store.
- Leaveners: I used both baking soda and baking powder to help the muffins rise.
- Fats: Vegetable oil, butter, and buttermilk add richness and moisture, keeping the muffins tender.
- Egg: Adds moisture and helps bind the ingredients together.
- Sweeteners: Honey, molasses, and brown sugar sweeten the muffins while adding depth of flavor.
- Flavor Enhancers: Vanilla extract, orange zest, and salt enhance the flavor in the muffins.
- Raisins: These are blended with water to add natural sweetness and extra moisture to the batter, to create the best bran muffin recipe.
For the Glaze
- Sugar: You’ll need both granulated sugar and brown sugar to make the glaze for the molasses bran muffins.
- Corn Syrup: Makes the glaze smooth and shiny with a syrupy texture.
- Melted Butter: Adds richness and helps the glaze set.
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations
- Swap the Raisins: Replace the raisins with another type of dried fruit, like chopped dates or prunes, for a slightly different flavor and texture.
- Add Nuts: Stir in some chopped walnuts or pecans to add a little crunch to the muffins.
- Make Mini Muffins: Use a mini muffin pan and bake for 10 minutes. Check for doneness and add more time if needed.
How to Make Raisin Bran Muffins
Get started making this simple bran muffin recipe by preheating your oven to 350°F and greasing a 12-cup muffin pan.
- Step 1: Make the glaze. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and water to a small bowl and stir until smooth.
- Step 2: Spoon into muffin pan. Add about ½ tablespoon of the glaze to each greased muffin cup
- Step 3: Blend the raisins. Add the raisins and water to a blender and blend until smooth, about 20-30 seconds.
- Step 4: Mix the wet ingredients. Add the blended raisins, oil, honey, molasses, egg, buttermilk, vanilla, orange zest, and brown sugar to a mixing bowl and stir to combine.
- Step 5: Mix in the dry ingredients. Add the bran, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the bowl and stir to combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
- Step 6: Bake the muffins. Add the batter to each muffin cup, filling to the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes.
- Step 7: Invert the muffins. After removing from the oven, carefully invert the muffins onto a baking sheet. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Step 8: Serve. Drizzle on some honey if desired and enjoy! You could also try this buttermilk syrup for a touch of indulgence.
Expert Tips
- Spray the pan generously: The glaze is quite sticky, so be sure to grease the pan well with non-stick spray to help the muffins release more easily.
- Invert immediately: Turn the muffins out onto a baking sheet right after removing them from the oven so the glaze doesn’t stick to the pan as it cools.
- Storing and reheating: Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week. They can also be individually wrapped and frozen for up to 3 months. Warm refrigerated muffins in the microwave for 10-15 seconds or frozen ones for 30-45 seconds.
Serving Suggestions
- Enjoy a muffin with a schmear of butter or go sweet by spreading some apple butter instead.
- Pour on some of this gooey salted caramel sauce to make your muffins extra special.
- Serve a batch of these muffins for your next weekend brunch along with this melon salad and egg soufflé.
Recipe FAQs
Why are my raisin bran muffins dense?
Dense muffins can result from overmixing or using too much flour. Be sure to stir just until the dry ingredients are combined. It’s also important to measure flour properly by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off rather than scooping directly from the bag.
Can I use oat bran instead of wheat bran for bran muffins with raisins?
Yes, but note that the texture will be slightly different. Wheat bran has more fiber and creates a heartier muffin, while oat bran is typically lighter in texture. You could also try this strawberry oat bran muffin recipe, which already uses oat bran.
More Homemade Muffin Recipes
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Raisin Bran Muffins
These Raisin Bran Muffins are soft, moist, and topped with a sweet and syrupy baked-in glaze. Made with wheat bran, molasses, honey, and pureed raisins, they’re hearty, wholesome, and perfect for breakfast, brunch, or snacking.
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Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 246kcal
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- ⅔ cup brown sugar divided
- 3 tablespoons dark corn syrup like Karo
- 3 tablespoons salted butter melted
- 1 cup + ½ tablespoon water divided
- 1 cup raisins
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon orange zest
- 1 cup wheat bran
- 1 cup wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously spray a muffin pan.
- Make glaze: In a small bowl, stir together sugar, 3 tablespoon of the brown sugar, corn syrup, melted butter, and ½ tablespoon of the water until smooth.
- Divide evenly between muffin cups (about ½ tablespoon each).
- Blend raisins: In a blender, combine raisins and remaining 1 cup water. Blend 20–30 seconds until smooth. Pour into a large mixing bowl.
- Mix wet ingredients: To the mixing bowl add oil, honey, molasses, egg, buttermilk, vanilla, orange zest, and remaining brown sugar to the raisin mixture. Stir to combine.
- Add dry ingredients: Add bran, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix just until just combined.
- Fill muffin cups to the top. Bake 15–18 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and tops spring back.
- Immediately invert onto a baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Serve warm with butter and honey if desired.
Video
Notes
- Don’t wait to invert the muffins onto the baking sheet or the glaze can begin to stick, making it hard to get them out.
- Avoid overmixing the batter as this can lead to dense muffins rather than tender ones.
- The muffins can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days, in the refrigerator for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Serving: 1muffin | Calories: 246kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 22mg | Sodium: 207mg | Potassium: 233mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 120IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 35mg | Iron: 2mg
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Jennifer H says
So excited to try these, they're in the oven as I type. Super easy recipe. I loved how you included the measurements in step 1 of the glaze, and step 6 of the muffin receipe, would have loved that in step 7 to prevent having to scroll back up. Thanks for sharing this as I have always loved the Mimi's bran muffins and the bran muffins that Starbucks used to carry.
Ann says
Absolutely love these
Bethy says
Step 3 says to put one-third tablespoon of glaze in each muffin tin. Pfffft why not just say 1 teaspoon? Anyway, happy muffining everyone!
Kadee says
Because if we put 1 teaspoon we wouldn't get to enjoy comments like this ;)
Rana says
Thank you for posting this recipe! They are my all-time favorite. I hadn’t had one in about eight years. But my mom brought them with her on her last visit.
The last time I looked for a copycat recipe there wasn’t one available. Super excited to make these!
Dianna says
Loved the orange but WAY to sweet for my family.
I might try without the syrup in the bottom
Megan says
How do these freeze? Have you tried that? Thanks!!
Kadee says
These freeze great! You can put them in a freezer bag or airtight container and freeze up to 3 months.
Megan says
Thanks so much!
Tami says
I have the light colored corn syrup and live to far from the store just to run down and get the dark syrup. Is it OK to use the light syrup instead or is there something I can do to make it like the dark syrup. Thank you for your recipes. Love them.
Kadee says
You can use light, it’s not as deep of a flavor but will still work great!
Eleanor A Connolly says
Hello! Ok, my question is the glaze....it was rather thick? I still scooped it in each muffin cup, and they came out great, the glaze seemed to be somewhat thick on the muffins. Just wondered how thick it should or shouldn't be! BTW, these are sooooo good! i lived near a Mimi's in Fort Worth and these were my absolute favorite muffins. This recipe is just like them! Thanks!!!
Kadee says
Yes the glaze should be thick.
Ivette says
Delicious recipe ! Everyone that tried , loved them. Thanks for sharing. Used dates instead of raisins and maple syrup instead of corn syrup.
HMB says
Absolutely spot on to the original. Wonderful! I’ve made this recipe several times now, using dates instead of raisins. Everywhere I take these people fight over the last one. Thank you for this recipe!
H says
Spot on. The original was amazing and this one is a perfect match!
Glenda says
Verry tasty. I wll make tnese again. 🥰🤩
Mar says
It’s Kari syrup. There’s a picture of the bottle on your site so you can cash in on that. How can you not spell it correctly? Duh-uh. Shows priorities.
Kadee says
It's actually Karo syrup, not Kari syrup. As always our priorities are to provide delicious recipes for free to readers.Typos are simply mistakes, and happy to correct. Thanks for the heads up.
Diane says
I just made these and they taste GREAT!! The only problem I had was that my batter was much more liquidy than yours. As a result, when I inverted the muffins onto a baking sheet, some of them kind of collapsed. Do I need to wait a bit before putting into my muffin pan so that the bran absorbs some of the liquid? I’ll definitely make them again, but maybe I need to cut down on the water.
Kadee says
You may need to bake your a bit longer. Every oven is different and different altitudes can effect baking times as well. You'll want a toothpick inserted to come out clean before you remove them from the oven.
MARY Stripling says
Can I use the glaze on other things like pork chops, hams, etc?
Kadee says
I don't see why not!
Chel says
Holy smokes, these came out AMAZING! I don't know if it was high altitude or what, but I had to bake them closer to 20 minutes. I also sprinkled some ground flax on top after baking and it added a really good flavor! I'm very happy with these!
Ruth says
I would like to make these, but I'm wondering if it is okay to use Kellogg's Oat Bran cereal, crushed?
Kadee says
I've not tried that. If you do, please let me know if it works!
shaka khan says
This is crap. A commercial for BlendTec!!!
Kadee says
Dear Shaka Khan, I'm sorry you feel this way. I'm not quite sure how to respond, because I have never been paid by Blendtec. I purchased my own Blender and reached out to them to offer a discount to my readers. I develop, photograph, and post recipes online for free - I am in no way a salesperson for Blendtec. I'm sorry you feel frustrated about my reference to the blender I used to create this recipe in an entire post about how to make delicious bran muffins. We will continue to post our recipes for free and recommend products that we find beneficial.
Emily Kemp says
I'd love to start the day with these, honey muffins are my fav!
Lisa says
I love their bran muffins and their carrot bread. I need their carrot bread recipe also!