Delicious bakery-style Cranberry Bran Flake Muffins are so easy to make.
Crushed bran flakes, and dried cranberries with a hint of orange flavour. Perfect for breakfast, lunch boxes, and more.
You might like to try these tasty Apple Cranberry Scones too.
I can never resist a freshly baked muffin to go with my morning coffee. It has been difficult to find natural bran these days in the grocery store.
Since I was craving a good bran muffin, I decided to use bran flakes instead. Know what I found out? I like them better this way.
They taste nutty, with the tangy sweet taste of dried cranberries, the mellow flavour of graham crumbs, and a hint of citrus from the orange extract.
They are more of a dense muffin, but still moist inside. The perfect bran and cranberry muffin for breakfast.
RECIPE and INSTRUCTIONS for these easy cranberry bran muffins can be found at the bottom of this post.
This Bran Muffin Recipe Needs:
- bran flakes cereal
- dried cranberries
- all-purpose flour
- graham cracker crumbs
- sour cream
- brown sugar
- oil – I used avocado but any cooking oil will work
- eggs
- orange extract
- salt
- baking powder
Typical muffin ingredients to make these old-fashioned bran muffins right at home.
Baking Cranberry Bran Flake Muffins
Super easy, and I even have some great suggestions below. Full instructions are in the recipe card.
You need to crush the bran flakes. I used a sandwich bag. Crush them with your hands and they are ready to use. You could also use a rolling pin.
Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Combine the two and fold in the dried cranberries.
Scoop the batter into a muffin tin. I like to line the tin with paper liners, but you can just use cooking spray. An ice cream scoop works great for transferring the batter to the muffin tin.
In about 20 minutes, you will have beautifully baked muffins. Transfer to a cooling rack. Be sure to eat one while it is still warm.
Suggestions / Recipe Tips
Dried cranberries can be replaced with blueberries, currants, raisins, or cherries.
Orange extract can be replaced with fresh orange zest.
Sour cream can be substituted with Greek yogurt.
Store in a container. They will keep for 3-4 days. Perfect for freezing as well.
FAQ
Yes, you can, but you will have to adjust the amount. 1 cup of fresh or frozen cranberries is equal to about ¾ cup of dried cranberries.
This is optional and a personal preference. Soaking will make them plump if that is the texture you are looking for.
Absolutely! If you are really interested in doing this, here is a great post on how to dry cranberries using an oven or dehydrator.
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Looking for more recipes with dried and fresh cranberries? Give these a try:
- Fresh Cranberry Sauce
- Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
- Holiday Croissants
- Homemade Holiday Granola
- Oatmeal Breakfast Donuts
Cranberry Bran Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 ounces bran flakes
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- ⅓ cup avocado oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400º F and line a muffin tin with paper liners (or you can just spray the pan with cooking spray if you prefer).
- Crush the bran flakes. I used a sandwich bag. Set aside.3 ounces bran flakes
- In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, graham crumbs, and crushed bran flakes.1 ½ cups all purpose flour, ½ cup graham cracker crumbs, ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- In a small bowl combine the oil, eggs, sour cream and orange extract.½ cup sour cream, ⅓ cup avocado oil, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon orange extract
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine. Fold in the dried cranberries.½ cup dried cranberries
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Use a cake tester or toothpick to check for doneness.
- Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!
DJ
Loved the addition of graham cracker crumbs. To me it made the recipe.
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
I love the graham crumbs in these muffins too.
Lily
Homemade cranberry bran muffins sound delicious! I love an easy morning breakfast that I can just grab and go with my coffee. These fit the bill perfectly.
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
Perfect for eating on the run.
Kathleen
Loving these healthy and scrumptious muffins. Great flavors too!
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
You can never go wrong with a bran muffin.
Quynh Nguyen
I made this for breakfast this morning, and my daughter loved it!! So flavorful and moist!
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
So glad your daughter enjoyed these cranberry bran flake muffins.
Mimi
Such an amazing breakfast option. Made these for us to enjoy before our weekend games. Kids loved them.
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
These are loved by kids and adults. Fresh muffins are the best.
Toni
This was a really huge hit at my house!! I’ll definitely make it again!
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
Thanks so much. So glad you enjoyed these delicious cranberry bran muffins.
Julie
Is is a great breakfast bran muffin recipe! I’m going to use dried cherries and soak them a little first so that they plump up, thanks for the tip!
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
You are welcome. These muffins will be great with dried cherries. ENJOY!
Keri Bevan
What’s not to love about these muffins? My kids loved them too, and happy to get some more fiber into them!
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
The bran flakes work well in these cranberry muffins.
Andréa Janssen
I love a good muffin. And these muffins look so good! I know what I’m going to bake this weekend!
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
Enjoy, we love these cranberry bran muffins for breakfast.
Rob
We inadvertently bought too many dried cranberries, so we made terrific use of them in these wonderful muffins! I subbed out the orange extract for vanilla, simply because I was too lazy to go buy the orange, and the muffins were so delicious!
Gloria Duggan | Homemade & Yummy
Adjust the seasonings/flavourings however you wish. You cannot go wrong making these cranberry muffins with bran flakes.