Feeding a Crowd

This recipe probably originates from a cereal box somewhere, now long forgotten.  This will make you approximately a million bran muffins, given or take.

More like 6 or 7 dozen, but who's counting.

The ingredients are all pretty standard.  Start by boiling the water and combining it with the all bran cereal in a two cup measure.

Then, for the samurai trick.  Toss the shortening into the warm mixture and allow it to melt.  This will evenly distribute your fat throughout the muffins.

Onto the buttermilk.  Back when I made pancakes, only a portion of a box of buttermilk was used.  Again, it was tossed in the freezer.  Well, stood in the door to freeze solid.  Which leads me to this picture.  Most of a quart of buttermilk, needing to be thawed.

Obviously, it wasn't quite a full quart, so I gave it a little top up with some regular milk.

So, sugar and eggs into the bowl.

By now, the hot cereal mixture should be all nice and melty.  Give it a little stir to be sure, then pour it in the bowl, too.

Dump in all the rest of the ingredients, except the flour and raisins.  Give it a good ol' stir.  Right about now, it's not lookin' too appetizing.

Just ask this guy.

Carefully pour in the flour and gently stir it in.  Please, try to use just your spoon.

And finally, the raisins.  Lots and lots of raisins.

Be sure to have a few extra raisins around to feed the help.

And there you have it.  Cover it tightly and leave it in the fridge at least a day.

It should be noted, for those who keep track of these things, that this is not the standard muffin methodology people like Alton Brown would employ.  Sorry, Alton, you aren't washing my dishes.  And since I am more than a little dishaphobic, I'll live with it.

It should be noted that this is the perfect recipe for using up that box of bran flakes in the back of the cupboard.  Or a great time to buy those cheap, but of questionable vintage flake from the bulk food store.

It will keep in the fridge and allow you to bake muffins, at leisure, for at least a week.

And there you have it.  I have just eliminated your need for icky, bagged, store-bought mixes.

Oh, how did they turn out?  Well, you'll just have to tune in tomorrow and find out... 1. 2.

Feeding a Crowd

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