Last week a reader asked me if I have a healthy oat bran muffins recipe. Her grandma used to make one with chopped dates. After a few tries I came up with my preferred version: whole wheat flour, organic high fibre oat bran, a touch of unsulphured molasses, mainly moistened with applesauce from my garden and bursting with raisins and walnut pieces. You can also use wheat bran or chopped dates.
These oat bran muffins with applesauce and no sugar came out moist, with a coarse nutty texture of oat bran and running only 229 calories each versus 500 calorie bakery muffin.
What a great idea to add these muffins to a snack rotation! More likely you will have all the ingredients on hand at any time, so no special grocery trip (I dread those with 2 kids in tow to grab a lime or a bunch of cilantro). Perfect for breakfast or school/work lunches. These bran muffins are super filling because of fibre and nuts.
More Healthy Muffins Recipes to Try:
- Healthy carrot muffins – moderately sweet muffins with oatmeal, raisins and nuts.
- Morning glory muffins – breakfast worthy with a little bit of everything good for you muffins.
- Healthy pumpkin muffins with cream cheese, just like Starbucks but so much healthier!
- Healthy chocolate chip muffins – your kids will approve!
Healthy Oat Bran Muffins
Healthy Oat Bran Muffins Recipe made with applesauce, whole wheat flour, oat bran, raisins and no sugar.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 17 minutes
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffis 1x
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup applesauce, unsweetened
- 1/2 cup raw honey or maple syrup
- 2 tbsp unsulphured molasses
- 2 tbsp olive oil, extra virgin
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups oat bran
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup flax seed, ground
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder, aluminum free
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Add Ins:
- 1/2 cup raisins or chopped dates (not packed)
- 1/3 cup nuts, coarsely chopped (walnuts (I used cheaper pieces rather than whole), pecans, hazelnuts)
- Cooking spray (I use Misto)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and spray non-stick 12 muffin tin with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk to combine Wet Ingredients. In another large mixing bowl, stir to combine Dry Ingredients. Add Wet Ingredients to a bowl with Dry Ingredients, gently mix just enough to combine. Do not over mix otherwise muffins won’t rise properly.
- Add Add Ins and stir a few times. Distribute batter evenly between 12 openings of a tin (I used regular ice cream scoop) and bake for 17 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let muffins cool for a few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack to cool off completely. Do not leave muffins in a tin as they will over bake and become dry.
Store: Refrigerate in a glass airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 6 months.
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.
Baked these muffins for the first time this afternoon and I’m eating one right now – moist, delicious and such an easy recipe to follow. This one is a keeper!
★★★★★
Fantastic! Glad you enjoyed the recipe, Teri!
Can you clarify whether the flax amount is 1/4 cup of the seeds before grinding into meal texture or after (so 1/4 cup of the ground seed)? Sorry if this topic is covered elsewhere but I’m a newbie baker and want to be sure I make it correctly.
Thanks so much: the photos look amazing!
★★★★★
1/4 cup ground. Measured after grinding if you grind whole seeds. No worries. There are no silly questions when it comes to cooking. So happy people ask. Means they are cooking healthy. Please let me know how these come out.:)
20g of sugar???? This is low sugar???
★★
“No sugar” in description means no refined sugar. All sugar is different. These muffins are made with healthy sugar like maple syrup or honey that’s full of vitamins and minerals. Not empty calories. Just like fruit contains “a lot” of sugar but it’s good for you.
These muffins are wonderful! I found them very moist and flavorful! Highly recommend. Very easy recipe to follow.
★★★★★
Happy to hear, Debbie!!!
Awesome!!!!! Love, love, love these muffins. They stay so moist for days. Thank you for sharing this receipe.
★★★★★
I made these muffins. They were delicious ,but I found them quite dry. What can I do to make them nice & moist?
Add more applesauce or avocado oil. I should remake this recipe, could be the case…
These r excellent! They remind me of bran muffins I would buy when I travelled periodically to NYC!!!
Three for three Olena! So happy I found your recipes!
I can tell you are enjoying cooking a storm, I am glad! 🙂 I won’t lie but I had to Google “three for three” and still would like a light shed on its meaning. 🙂
Oh! Hahaha… no worries! It just means that I’ve cooked three things and each one was a winner! Say if one turned out not soo good… I would write two for three!
Got it.:)
Made these muffins today and they are sooooo delicious, really moist for bran muffins! I’m going to add more dates next time though. Thanks!
Yes, sweetness is a personal taste.:) Glad you enjoyed, Chris!!!
thank you for putting the nutrition info. Including sodium. my doc made us cut out sodium and this helps me even know if i can look at your recipes. made a batch With pumpkin and walnuts and they were delicious am making a 2nd batch now.
Thankfully you can control sodium in many recipes to your taste. Just know that 1 tsp salt equals 2300 mg sodium and go from there. Overall, processed foods are the major cause for sodium overload. Glad you enjoyed my muffins.:)
These are simply amazing, and made with such wholesome ingredients, my kids love them!
I know, bakery muffins have at least 500 calories and if there’s a butter top/crumb frosting, you are done!! I love how there’s only 229 in these. Now that’s something to pat yourself on the back before. And you take reader ideas….hmmm, might have some of my own to send you, ha.
Spill the beans! I wanted to ask you, what is a good way to clean non-organic vegetables? I have heard of something about soaking in vinegar solution.
Oh my goodness….these look perfect! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you….just what I was looking for…I cannot wait to make these. I have been buying them from a nutritional dietician and have been hating the fact that I could not find a good clean eating recipe I can make (for half the cost) on my own. These Olena will be perfect for my breakfast rotation! I cannot thank you enough for researching and coming up with this recipe! I, by the way, made your banana muffins over the weekend and they were amazing!!! My whole family loved them! I turned around and made a second batch to freeze. They are yummy! Now it looks like I will be making bran muffins tonight!!!! Hugs!
I made these muffins because of you.:) That was a great idea! What other recipes “to clean up” do you have in mind?:) Oh, you are paying for muffins?! You are a true clean eating fan LOL. Glad you liked banana muffins. You might also like my chocolate muffins. Do you know of The Gracious Pantry? Another clean eating recipe blog. I haven’t made a single recipe though but Tiffany has lots of recipes!