California Fig Bran Muffins

Looking for a way to add more fiber into your day? This Fig Bran Muffin Recipe is for fans of raisin bran cereal—with a twist of chewy California Figs. Read on to learn how to make bran muffins with figs.

Raisin bran cereal and raisin bran muffins are a winning flavor combination by pairing fruit with grains. Figs take that idea in a different direction. They also impart sweetness, along with molasses, and brown sugar.  Fiber comes from the whole wheat flour, bran flake cereal, and from premium dried figs. 

Best Bran Muffin Recipe

What constitutes the best bran muffin recipe? Whole wheat flour used alone, can yield a dense crumb. Here, the whole wheat flour teams up with all-purpose flour for a muffin with a light crumb, full of fiber. The addition of the bran cereal in two textures will give a delicious nubby quality while also contributing extra nutrition.

Figs + Fiber

You could call these raisin bran muffins for fig lovers! Orchard Choice and Sun-Maid California Dried Mission Figs have the deeply fruity flavor of your favorite chewy childhood cookie and they’re chock full of fiber. We’ve written extensively about the fiber in figs.

Here are a few resources:

• Do figs have more fiber than prunes? Start here to learn about figs and fiber.
• Find more fiber-rich fig recipes
• Meal prep ideas to boost fiber in your diet

Muffin Batter Baking Notes

Unless you’re baking bread, a goal with muffins, cakes, and cookies is to not overly develop the gluten. This is done by first whisking the dry ingredients—leavener, flour, salt—in their own bowl to fold into the wet ingredients until just combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: melted butter, eggs, vanilla, molasses, and yogurt 

For the bran muffin recipe, America’s Test Kitchen prefers Kellogg’s All-Bran Original cereal. Half of the cereal gets finely ground in a food processor. It’s added with the unprocessed bran  flakes at the end. As only bran flake cereal eaters know, it can be kind of crunchy right after adding in milk, but the flakes can turn softer after a few minutes of soaking up milk. That same idea applies here, as you’ll let the muffin mix sit for about 5 minutes, until evenly moistened before baking the muffins.

Rather than using sour cream for a moist crumb, whole milk Greek yogurt gets the job done and lessens the amount of fat needed. Low-fat or nonfat yogurt can be substituted for whole milk yogurt, though the muffins will be slightly less flavorful.

The figs are the final addition to the bran muffin recipe, folded into the muffin batter right before baking, until just combined. 

Rather than use muffin liners, the bran muffin recipe suggests spraying a muffin tin with cooking spray so the muffin batter bakes directly in the wells of the tin.

The bran muffins recipe is great year round, but would be especially good during the autumn with a bit of apple butter or fig jam. For extra protein, spread on peanut butter or your favorite nut butter, or eat alongside a bowl of fresh fruit and Greek yogurt. There’s nothing like a fresh muffin! Make a plan to bake these this week.