Blueberry Maple Bran Muffins
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Start your morning right with blueberry maple bran muffins—hearty, lightly sweet, and bursting with juicy berries in every bite.
Most delicious muffins are loaded with white flour, sugar, and butter, making them more like cupcakes without the frosting than a wholesome breakfast. On the flip side, most healthful muffins don’t taste very good. These blueberry bran muffins, sweetened with maple syrup, strike the perfect balance between nutritious and indulgent. They’re lower in fat and sugar than most muffins, enriched with wheat bran and whole wheat flour, and packed with antioxidant-rich blueberries.
These muffins are a treat you can feel good about baking for your family. The recipe was inspired by a similar version in Lucinda Scala Quinn’s Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys.
“These are delicious and easy to make. I made them this morning, following the recipe to a T. The best bran muffins ever!”
What You’ll Need To Make Blueberry Maple Bran Muffins
- All-purpose flour, whole wheat flour & wheat bran or wheat germ: This trio provides structure and hearty texture, with the bran or germ adding fiber and a subtle nuttiness.
- Baking powder & baking soda: Work together to give the muffins a light, tender rise.
- Cinnamon, maple syrup, sugar & blueberries: Bring warm spice and sweetness to the muffins, with juicy blueberries scattered throughout for bursts of flavor.
- Large eggs, vegetable oil & milk: These bind the batter and add richness, moisture, and a tender crumb.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1. Prep the oven and dry ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, the wheat flour, wheat bran (or wheat germ), baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Step 2. Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, maple syrup, sugar, oil, and milk. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until the batter is smooth—it will be very wet.
Pro Tip: If your maple syrup is cold from the fridge and you have the time, bring it to room temp first so it doesn’t seize up when mixed with the eggs and oil.
Step 3. Prep and add the blueberries. Rinse the blueberries, then toss them in a small bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons of flour so they’re lightly coated (the blueberries need to be wet for the flour to stick). Gently fold them into the batter using a spatula.
Pro Tip: Tossing the berries in flour helps keep them from sinking—just make sure they’re a little wet so the flour will stick to them.
Step 4. Fill the muffin tin. Use a ladle or 1/3-cup measure to scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each almost to the top.
Step 5. Bake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and crisp around the edges.
Step 6. Cool and store. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack. Serve warm. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. The muffins can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
Pro Tips For the Best Blueberry Bran Muffins
- Frozen blueberries work fine: Just don’t thaw them—adding them straight from the freezer prevents them from bleeding into the batter and turning it purple. As with fresh, toss them in a little flour so they don’t sink.
- All-purpose flour is okay: If you don’t have whole wheat flour on hand, feel free to use only all-purpose. The muffins will still turn out great, but using both adds texture and a little nutritional boost.
- Use a gentle hand with mixing: Once the wet and dry ingredients are combined, stir just until there are no dry spots. Overmixing can make the muffins dense.
- Store wheat bran and/or wheat germ in the fridge or freezer. This will significantly extend its shelf life. If kept at room temp, it will generally only keep for 3 months.
Bake Your Way Through These Muffin Recipes
Blueberry Maple Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off, divided
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ⅓ cup wheat bran or wheat germ
- 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and set an oven rack in the middle position. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the 1 cup (130 g) of the all-purpose flour, the wheat flour, wheat bran (or wheat germ), baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In another bowl, beat together the eggs, maple syrup, sugar, oil and milk. Whisk the egg mixture into the flour mixture until batter is smooth (note: batter will be very wet).
- Rinse the blueberries and toss them in a small bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons of flour until they are well-coated (the blueberries need to be wet in order for the flour to stick). Add them to the batter and fold gently with a spatula until evenly distributed. Using a ladle or ⅓-cup measure, scoop the batter into the muffin cups until they are almost full.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and crisp around the edges. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn muffins out onto a wire rack. Serve warm. Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days and reheat before serving. (To reheat, wrap muffins in aluminum foil and place in a 350°F/175°C oven for 10 to 15 minutes.)
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I substituted cane sugar for white sugar, double the blueberries, and both wheat bran and sweetened wheat germ and they are really not very good 🙁 I think it was the cane sugar – it’s just not sweet enough. I never like what I cook with it.
Hi Lindsdey, It was probably also the fact that you doubled the berries. Blueberries get very sour when you bake them, so they need a lot of sugar to balance them out.
Made these this morning w/ honey instead of maple syrup and they were delicious! I really liked the suggestion of putting berries in batter after t hey were in the muffin tins – made for a nice distribution of the berry in the muffin.
I just made these muffins – delish!!! Not too sweet, perfectly moist. Only one problem, I burned them, and they cooked for only 20 minutes. Any idea what I did wrong? I would like to make them again, but I don’t know how to prevent them from burning again…
Hi Elissa, So glad you liked the muffins! That’s strange that they burned. It may be that your oven is a bit too hot — you can try calibrating it or just cook the muffins at 375 next time.
Thanks! I will try the lower temp.
Jenn, do these freeze well – fully cooled? Any instructions appreciated!
Sure, Amy, they can be frozen in an airtight container or sealable plastic bag for up to 3 months. Thaw for 3 – 4 hours on the countertop before serving. To reheat, wrap individual muffins in aluminum foil and place in a preheated 350°F oven until warm. Hope you enjoy!
I’m not a fan of maple flavor, any suggestions on what I could substitute for the syrup? Honey, perhaps?
Hi Shelley, Yes, honey would work great!
We made these last night and fed them to the kiddos this morning (2 & 4) and they LOVED them! We didn’t even reheat them and they gobbled em up!
Thanks for sharing another great recipe!
As you commented & we know, white sugar is bad for you, yet there is 1/2 cup plus of sugar used in this recipe! Can there not be a better substitute suggested?!
Hi Barb, Unfortunately, I know of no good sugar substitute. I tried making the recipe with less, but the sourness of the blueberries was overwhelming. You need the sugar to balance it out. That said, I’ve made this recipe using only 1/4 cup sugar with chopped strawberries instead of blueberries and it came out great.
Your daughter is so cute!! I love bran muffins…always have. These look great 🙂
Do you think whole wheat pastry flour could be subbed for all the flour? I think it would work. I’ll try it and let you know. These look wonderful, and the idea to drop the blueberries in is a really good one. Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Sue, Whole wheat flour absorbs more liquid than all purpose flour, so you will need to add a bit more milk to make up for the difference, otherwise the muffins will turn out really dry. Hope that helps.
Thank you! I think the whole wheat pastry flour is a tad lighter, and might work better than the whole wheat flour; if it doesn’t work, nobody to blame but me!
You might try an extra egg yolk. It provides liquid (good) and fat (not as good) that can keep the dough moister.
I have ALWAYS LOVED bran muffins. I remember eating them as a kid thinking, “These are muffins for old people.”
These look wonderful!
These look great! I love bran muffins, especially with fresh fruit in them 🙂