Carob-Honey Bran Muffins

One thing that I really miss from North America is waking up to a moist, soft, sweet, bran muffin. I’m not sure if it was the tangible change in season in Cyprus or something else but I had a huge craving for some. My sister is visiting and so we have been spending a few hours at the beach every day because in Canada she won’t have weather like this until next summer, so after we were driving home the other day we stopped at an organic shop and I bought all the harder-to-find ingredients for this recipe including: molasses, coconut sugar and fine bran. What I remember and love about bran muffins in Canada is that they would be my go-to lazy and healthy breakfast option. I would not know what to eat and then find one in a coffee shop and buy it. I couldn’t wait to tear off the top and bite into a sweet, and slightly gooey, breakfast muffin. But I had never had to make them, I guess because I always knew they were my lazy-eat-out quick breakfast option. But because of my craving, I decided to make them because I can’t actually think of anywhere in Cyprus that sells bran muffins. In doing so, I decided to add some Cypriotness to these muffins and used a brand of carob-honey to add a carob-kick to the muffins. If you don’t have carob-honey, that’s no problem, the muffins will still be tasty. If you want a carob fix and only have carob syrup, I would just use all honey, and substitute out 1 tsp of honey for 1 tsp of carob syrup in the muffin mix, and the same in the glaze mix. I have not tried it, so am not sure the results with the substitutions, but I think it should be OK. Anyway, if you do have carob-honey the carob flavour is subtle but present. It gives these muffins an extra layer of flavour. And the glaze is reeeallly delicious.

I think the glaze is what makes a bran muffin. The glaze gets put into the bottoms of the muffin tins before the muffins gets cooked. You need to ensure that the glaze is spread around the bottom of the muffin tin so that it is absorbed by the muffin, because this is what really adds that sweetness and moistness to a bran muffin – and it’s the reason I discovered that I basically eat them! I actually turned my muffins upside down when they were cooling so that the any unabsorbed glaze could drip through the muffin properly, and I would recommend doing that as well. Otherwise last week was a busy week, I am photographing my first cookbook for someone – and at the same time – had the opportunity to photograph some dishes for the beautifully renovated Drousia Heights Hotel. Because my sister is here I haven’t had the chance to edit the photos, but I have been posting some of the foods on my Instagram account, which you can find on the left here. I’m looking forward to sharing some more news on that front soon. Anyway, I should go as my sister is still visiting and we have a big souvla lunch to go to later and I want to eat some bran muffins for breakfast!! Happy Thursday, and speak next week. xxx