Vegan Bran Muffins

Oh, the lowly bran muffin: it can be like eating a scrap of kraft paper, or it can make being semi-virtuous really easy and palatable. Adding more bran and using whole wheat pastry flour gave these a deeper, darker depth of flavor than the basic recipes I'm used to following. Put the batter together and store it covered in the fridge overnight; set out your muffin tin, liners, and ice cream scoop before you go to bed, and you can have these warm from the oven on a weekday with very little morningtime effort at all.

Vegan Bran Muffins

1 1/2 cups bran
1 1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (sifted)

1/2 cup light brown sugar 

2/3 cup vegan cane sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2/3 cup golden raisins

Topping (optional):

1/2 teaspoon Maldon salt

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

1 tablespoon soy margarine

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine soy milk and bran and let mixture sit for at least 10 minutes. Add vanilla, canola oil, and molasses and stir. In a separate bowl, sift flours, salt, sugars, and baking soda. Combine wet and dry mixtures; add raisins. Stir until just mixed. Use an ice-cream scoop to portion out batter into muffin cups; they can be filled almost to level because they won't rise much. If you want a crunchier top, sprinkle with brown sugar and salt and add a thin slice of margarine to the middle of each muffin before baking. Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted into a tester muffin comes out clean with few crumbs.