There is something magic about a real bran muffin, the old-fashioned kind that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers made; not too sweet, boldly fibrous, stuffed with dried fruit or berries, substantial enough to provide energy but light enough that we didn’t fall asleep mid-morning because our digestive systems had to siphon blood from our brains, to cope with a sudden rush of doughy carbs.

Our grannies and great-grannies wrote out those recipes in schooled handwriting on 5-inch x 3-inch cards that were lost and found and lost again, sometimes turning up stained and battered at the bottom of a cardboard box containing report cards, scraps of beaded leather, ribbons and yellowing obituaries, for people we didn’t know, clipped from the local paper.

But sometimes those old recipes don’t turn up again, and then we must embark on a fevered hunt for one that can deliver the remembered flavour, look and texture of the beloved favourite. I found gold when I received a handwritten bran muffin recipe from a friend, complete with an illustration of a muffin, bumpy with raisins, just out of the oven—you could tell by the steam rising in curls from the top.

My pal got the recipe from our mutual pal, and I don’t know where she got it, but when I baked off a batch I was transported back to Granny’s kitchen, in Ottawa, the summer I was seven. Our tadpole-finding excursions in ponds near the Rideau River that summer were fuelled by early breakfasts of warm bran muffins, with a pat of butter melting on top—simple, substantial and delicious.

When the editor’s call came for recipes that would do good things for the gut, I was ready. With one and a half cups of wheat bran, these muffins are an excellent source of fibre, and we all know what that’s good for. Wild blueberries provide additional fibre, vitamins A and C, and antioxidants, while walnuts contribute more antioxidants plus alpha-linolenic acid, one of the three most important of the essential omega-3 fats.

So, bran muffins as good as Granny’s and full of good gut things—what are we waiting for? Cooks, to your stations!

Yield: 12

Blueberry and Walnut Bran Muffins

With big thanks to sometime-Yukoner Val Baggaley, whose recipe, so much like my grandmother’s, was given to me by Whitehorseian Laurel Parry, in the best tradition of recipe sharing amongst families and friends.

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Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 cup birch syrup or molasses
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk, yogurt or milk, soured with 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups bran
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup wild blueberries, thawed if frozen
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and grease a 12-cup muffin tin, or insert muffin liners into each cup.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk melted butter, brown sugar and birch syrup or molasses, until blended. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, followed by the buttermilk, yogurt or soured milk. Stir in the bran.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt, and add to the wet mixture, stirring just until mixed. Fold in the blueberries and walnuts.
4. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups or liners, filling each one about 2/3 full.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until tops are golden brown. Serve right away, or cool on a rack and store in a paper bag for one or two days. These muffins freeze well and are terrific camping food.
6. Makes