Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins

These muffins are a staple in my house. To make them slightly healthier I use unsweetened applesauce in place of oil, substitute 1 cup of all purpose flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour, use skim milk + 2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar in place of the buttermilk, and use natural peanut butter when it's on hand. I also use bran buds in place of bran flakes for more fiber. Just reduce to 3 3/4 cups and soak them in the milk for a few minutes. If you don't have quick cooking oats, old fashioned will do. Sometimes I'll sprinkle a little sugar on top before baking. Mini chocolate chips spread the sweetness around. Make sure to grease muffin cups and forget the paper liners (you'll throw away good muffin). They can easily be dropped by the tablespoon for cookies. I always bake a full batch and freeze for later.

What can I say...these were fantastic! I followed the recipe exactly as outlined (although I didn't have any buttermilk, so I had to make my own with a little bit of milk and lemon juice). I thought that the bran flakes gave the muffins a really interesting texture. I roughly crushed mine with a rolling pin, so they maintained a detectable 'crunch'. Next time I might give them a quick whiz in the food processor. Overall I ended up with 20 jumbo muffins - very filling, with just the right enough of sweetness. Just be sure to grease your muffin pan thoroughly - a couple of my muffins seemed to stick to the sides. I will definitely be making these again.

These are Bran Muffins with a kick. They are moist and tasty, and all the ingredients are ones I have on hand without a trip to the store. I found they are better cooked without being in the paper cups. They tend to stick to the paper, but when cooked without them, with a little shortening to grease the muffin cups, they come right out, don't leave a mess and are moist all the way to the bottom and taste better. A great way to start any morning.

I changed the recipe just a bit by replacing some of the sugar with splenda and adding a tsp. of vanilla, but muffins were very yummy. I'm always looking for slightly healthy ways to add chocolate to my diet and this fit the bill! Also tried freezing the muffins as suggested--worked quite well.

I made these with whole wheat flour and Raisin Bran and they turned out great! Thanks for the recipe!

These are very good! I'll add my substitutions to the conversation...I tried to make them a little healthier and get rid of some of the fat and cholesterol. I used applesause instead of oil; I replaced the 2 eggs with 1 ripe banana and 1/2 tsp. of baking powder; I also used 1 cup of whole wheat flour in place of 1 cup of the all purpose; I added 1 tsp of vanilla on the advice from another review. I didn't have enough bran flakes (about 3 cups instead of 4 1/2), but that didn't seem to matter; I also blended the flakes with my Magic Bullet and added them to the dry ingredients, instead of folding them in afterwards. I made 1/2 of my muffins without the chocolate chips, and the rest with them (used 1/2 cup instead of a whole one); both turned out wonderfully moist and not the least bit crumbly.

These were excellent, though I made substantial substitutions and changes. I gave the recipe five stars even though I didn't follow it exactly, because it still takes a good base recipe to work well with lots of substitutions. I halved the original recipe and made mini-muffins instead of full-sized ones. I ended up with 3 1/2 dozen minis. I didn't have any bran flakes cereal, so instead of the 2 1/4 cups of bran flakes the half recipe called for, I used 1 1/2 cups of natural wheat bran. I didn't have any buttermilk and also was a bit short on milk, so for the 1 cup of buttermilk I used 3/4 cup of regular milk with 1 tbsp of lemon juice, and I topped it off with 1/4 cup of soy milk. Someone had mentioned that they were a bit crumbly, so I added 1/4 cup of Applesauce. The mixture still looked a bit dry, so I added 2 more heaped tbsp on top of that. I also added 1 tsp of vanilla and increased the chocolate chips from 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup. They turned out great!

Yummy. I have a new favorite muffin recipe. I followed this recipe save for using whole wheat flour for the white. I also did not use plain bran flakes, but All Bran Honey Nut (flakes with oat clusters). The peanut butter adds a delicious element to this recipe - you can JUST taste it and it's not overpowering. It's a brilliant addition to an already outstanding recipe. I think using half chocolate and half butterscotch chips would be really good in this recipe because of the peanut butter flavor. This makes a nice thick batter and because whole grain muffins won't rise much, I overfilled the cups to yield 24 nicely domed muffins. Tons of flavor and nutrition in every bite of this delicious recipe!

These are pretty good. Not sweet at all. In fact if it weren't for the chips they wouldn't be sweet enough and would be quite bland. I used extra peanut butter, but still wasn't enough for my family. This recipe made 24 muffins, if I make these again, I'll cut it in half.

I've made these twice now, and have been a huge hit both times! The second time I made them I halved the recipe and added about 1 1/2 tbsp of wheat germ and substituted the oil for applesauce and like these MUCH better. They are much lighter than with oil! I hightly recommend!

These are delicious!! I made some substitutes to make it healthier, and they worked well: I used Splenda instead of sugar and applesauce instead of the oil. I used whole wheat bran flakes, and I added 2 ripe smashed bananas (I just had them lying around, so I didn't want them to go to waste). I also used dark chocolate chips. I think that next time I will use only 1/2 c of the choc chips - they're a little overwhelming.

These were quite good. Mine came out a touch more dry than I thought was proper but I suspect the difference is in how "fluffy" your cereal is. Mine was near the bottom of the bag, so the pieces were smaller, so more cereal fit into my measuring cup. My batter reminded me of drop cookie batter, so if my texture is that thick next time I'll just add a little more buttermilk to thin it out. Thanks for the recipe, this was a great way to use my Raisin Bran!

Delicious straight from the oven, a bit dry once cooled. This may be due to using oat bran rather than bran flake cereal. We decreased the oat bran the 2nd time and they were still delicious warm but a little dry cooled.

I really like these, and more importantly, so do my kids. I like that they have the wheat bran and oats in them and some protein with the peanut butter. My daughter has been taking these as a snack before swimming and loves them. Will probably be making these often.

I don't know what I did wrong but these did not turn out that well. The texture was great (probably due to the bran flake cereal) but the flavor was a little bland. I made a few changes to the recipe by substituting half of the white flour for wheat flour and about 1/4 of the sugar for splenda. I also added more chocolate chips than the recipe called for (a little less than 1/4 cup more) and did not have buttermilk so just used milk. I didn't think that the buttermilk would make that much of a difference but maybe it did? I would still make these again but I think I would just add more sugar and they would be just fine. Overall, a decent recipe.

I cut this recipe down to 15 muffins, which really made 12. I used whole wheat flour, cut the sugar down to under a quarter cup and used Trader Joe's organic peanut butter. I don't know if it was because I used whole wheat flour instead of white but my dough was REALLY dry. I had to add another cup of buttermilk to get it to almost muffin consistancy. I hope they don't turn out tough or dry because of overmixing or lack of moisture. I make a lot of muffins and you can usually tell a good muffin recipe by it's ability to sub out ingredients. I don't know about this one. I'll update my review once they come out of the oven. EDITED: These actually turned out. Phew. I was really worried. They look beautiful, too. I'll just have to make a note for next time that I'll have to add another cup of buttermilk.

best bran muffins I've ever had and my little boy loves them.

I followed the recipe exactly. The flavor was excellent, the only thing I wasn't fond of was that they were extremely crumbly. I will make these again, but I will have to add something(maybe applesauce) to give it some moisture.

I am disappointed in these. I think I was expecting too much. The first batch was still wet in the center at 14 minutes but burnt by 17. The second batch looks better, ( I lowered the temp to 350 for 17 minutes). I prefer bran muffins with a heartier texture. The batter reminded me of plain flour muffins with a bit of bran flecks. Do not get me wrong...I ate three, but I do not think I will use this particular recipe again.

Excellent! Makes a filling and satisfying snack.

These were way too dry. I'm glad I made only 1/2 a recipe. The batter was really thick on these. They turned out too dry and I think they need more sugar. I added a mashed banana, vanilla and cinnamon.

Loved it!! Great consistancy, perfect moistness--and good for you too!

Excellent and very moist, will make again.. For healthier version used 1/2 sugar and 1/2 splenda.. Excellent!!!

Leftovers? ...what leftovers? I have made these twice already in just one week. I can't keep my hubby out of them. I also didn't have buttermilk on hand and prepared my own with milk and lemon juice. I also experimented and used peanut butter chips the second time around for variety and they are just as delicious. I also prepared a few in my mini muffin tins and baked until a cake tester inserted came out clean. Thank you for the recipe...this goes in my book with all of the other keepers.

This is one recipe that will please them all. ... here are my variations... I used 1 cup of brown sugar instead of white... 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of sour cream in place of the buttermilk... and used white whole wheat flour. Also used Raisin Bran (slightly crushed). Everybody from 1 1/2 yrs. old to 90 year old loved them... Stupid dog even ate a couple off the counter while they were cooling... hahaha! Definitely a great recipe... Thanks so much!

very good! used wheat flour, subbed applesauce for oil, and i used half butterscotch and half chocolate chips.

Absolutely delicious. Since this was my first time making these, I followed the recipe and they are wonderful!

My husband and I really enjoyed these muffins. They were very delicious and my husband originally chose to rate them 4/5 he said the only thing that could make them better was raisins, but he changed his mind later. I'll give the raisins a try next time. Yield: 24 Muffins

I had to take out the peanut butter so I could send these to school with my children for lunch (they attend a peanut-aware school and are not permitted to bring peanut products). I substituted one cup of pumpkin instead. Mashed bananas would probably also work. I really liked these.

Nice, moist muffins. My only criticism is (like others said) they could be sweeter. I may try adding more sugar next time. I didn't have rolled oats on hand so I added an extra 1/3 cup of flour and an extra cup of bran flakes and it worked great! Also, I cut back on the oil and a bit of the sugar and added about an 1/8 cup of honey. I would def. make again and maybe experiment with tossing in some fruit and nuts!

Very tasty and easy. Light peanut butter flavor. Very moist. I didn't have buttermilk so subbed in plain kefir. Also subbed in 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour just to try it out. Great recipe. A keeper

Delicious!! I made a few changes to up the nutritional value. Subbed whole wheat flour for all purpose and subbed low fat sour cream for oil. I was out of white sugar so used brown sugar. I took someone's advice and added a bit of vanilla and crushed the bran flakes for a more consistent texture. I also used two cups skim milk with 2 Tbs lemon juice (homemade buttermilk without the fat) in place of the actual buttermilk. Amazing!! Still very tasty, and "dessert" tasting with the changes. Thank you for sharing this recipe.