bran muffins

I'm fairly certain most people have a favorite bran muffin recipe. They seem to be one of those 'regular rotation' muffins in many households, with most everyone's mom having a 4x6 recipe card tucked away somewhere. I've even known quite a few people who make them by the bucket, as the batter keeps quite well in the fridge. Me, well, I've always had a soft spot for the recipe on the back of my bran package. It's straight forward, and I never have to go looking for my mother's precious cards (I do need to transfer those one day).


Sometimes I bake them up as is, other times I'll throw in some raisins. I think over the years I've just about conquered the bite sized dried fruit market in my bran muffins. From blueberries to cranberries to wolfberries, and everything in-between. I rarely chop up bigger fruits like dried apricots and plums, but when I received a package of medjool dates from Martha's Gardens in Yuma Arizona last week, I decided to dice a few up use these. The results were lovely with the dates adding a nice bit of extra sweet moisture. Unlike many recipes, this one actually makes 12 regular sized muffins.

* Did you know there are over 100 cultivators of dates with archaeological evidence of date farming going back 6000 years! And, that medjool means 'unknown' because the original cultivator didn't know what species they were.