I went through a spell in high school of only eating Shaw’s Supermarket’s raisin bran muffins for breakfast. I considered trying to recreate it, but why would you use raisins when you could use apples? Exactly.

3/4 c. wheat flour
1 c. bran cereal, crushed
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 egg
3/4 c. milk
2 tbs. vegetable oil
4 oz. container of plain apple sauce
1 apple, cut into bite-side pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread apple pieces out on a buttered sheet pan, then let bake for 15 minutes (this will dry them out, allowing a less mushy muffin). In a large bowl, mix flour, bran, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix together milk, egg oil and apple sauce. Add to flour mixture, whisk, then let stand for a few minutes to soften bran. Fold in cooled apple pieces then scoop in to lined muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes clean.

Note for making awesome apple-bran muffins: These were delicious. Nothing like my high school favorite, but still fantastic… My roommate and I have eaten ALL of them in the past 2 days, so I guess that’s proof! The applesauce helps with adding some extra moistness without making everything mushy. This recipe yields 6 small muffins, but next time I’m totally going to double the batch and make huge ones!