I am working my way through Good to the Grain, in case you haven't noticed. It's going to take me a while, but at some point I'd like to try everything in the book. Ken has been eating the Fig-Bran Muffins from So Easy and wanted me to make another bran muffin for when those run out. My mind immediately snapped to these.
Like most of the recipes in this book, this is more time-consuming than most other recipes I've made or even read, but like the rest of the book, you're trading some extra time for extra quality. The first step here is making a prune puree, which keeps the muffins moist. You have to cook the prunes in orange juice, then puree them with an immersion blender. I wasn't able to squeeze out enough OJ from the few oranges I had left, so I had to scale down the recipe, which made it much more difficult to puree. Finally, though, with a little help, I got it pureed down enough.
The other minor roadblock I ran into was an error in the actual recipe. One step mentions warming buttermilk on the stove to lukewarm. Later, softened bran is mentioned with no indication as to how to soften it. I put two and two together and mixed the warmed buttermilk into the bran, letting it sit for a few minutes before continuing with the recipe. Next time I might let it sit a little longer. I also messed up a little when adding the prune puree - I was supposed to mix it in thoroughly with the wet ingredients before adding them to the dry, but I forgot (oops) and added it in after. I'd like to try it again the right way, though.
These muffins were yummy and I'm sure I'll be making them again. Next time I'll prepare better so that I have the right amount of prune puree and can freeze the other half to make another batch of muffins.
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