Howdy, all y'all,
I had all the ingredients in the house, including some milk that had gone sour on me and needs using, so I made bran muffins last night.

I routinely plump raisins to go into baked goods, soaking in boiling water, but this time I got a little creative--put the cup of raisins into a stainless steel 2-cup measure, gave them a healthy shot of raspberry-flavored sweet syrup, and covered with burgundy, then set the cup on the pilot light for a couple of hours.

I had intended to use sunflower seeds as the NutsOrSeeds ingredient, since I had a package of roasted/salted ones open, but when I sniffed the package they smelled rancid, so I used pecans from the freezing compartment (grown in this county--I buy a good many pounds every fall from the grove, cracked, pick them out, and use them all year--much cheaper than store pecans)

Bran Muffins Bonne Femme
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1 cup boiling water
1 cup millers' wheat bran
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup oil (I used Canola, SS)
2 large eggs
1+1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1+1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour milk, buttermilk, or yogurt
1 cup raisins
1 cup nuts or seeds

Mix bran and boiling water, set aside for 10 minutes. Mix honey, oil, & eggs (measured the oil first, so the honey would slide out of the cup easily), then add flour and soda alternately with milk. Stir in bran, raisins, and nuts (I included the little liquid that was left from the plumping with the raisins--made the batter a pretty pink color, but the muffins came out normal bran-muffin brown, SS) Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 350° F for 25 minutes. Makes 18 muffins.

I don't much like washing dishes, try to make it as easy as possible, so I buy muffin cups to line the pans. The package of muffin cups in my cabinet were paper cups alternated with foil cups, for some reason, so I tried to use them as they came, came out with 10 paper and 8 foil (I wanted more paper). When the muffins were cool, I put the paper-cupped ones in two plastic bags and froze them. I'll thaw and reheat the frozen ones in the microwave, probably one at a time unless somebody comes in to help me eat them--no foil wanted! Ate the first one while it was still too hot to eat, and a couple more later while warm. Came out pretty good. The other foil-cupped ones will be fine unfrozen until I finish them.

I don't bake much these days, but sometimes get the urge.

Love in Christ, Scripture-spewing fundamentalist nastily infamously ranting redneck-bloodsucking-zombie childish narrowminded persecution-complexed breeder Republican Democrat Charismatic Catholic Christian Episcopalian Kansiensis
Sibyl Smirl, singing her name to the tune of "Home on the Range"