The Incredible Tasty Bran Muffin
These muffins really have the total package. First off (and most importantly) they’re delicious and the pumpkin flavor is perfect for the holidays. In addition to taste, they’re low calorie, low fat, and high in fiber. WOW! It’s almost to good to be true, but this time it really is true. What makes this recipe all the more remarkable is that in order to be palatable, the typical bran muffin is loaded with fat. This makes sense when you consider that bran can have the consistency and texture of sawdust - ewwww! 
Bakers overcompensate for this by adding loads and loads of fat. Fortunately this recipe takes advantage of a low fat, low calorie, and delicious fat alternative…Pumpkin! The moist flavorful ingredient helps create something once believed to be impossible - a scrumptious bran muffin!
Pumpkin Bran Muffins: Lightly grease or line the wells of one or more muffin pans with papers and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, bran cereal, butter, and sugars. Stir in the eggs and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, spices, baking soda and baking powder. Stir into the pumpkin mixture, then stir in the raisins. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the batter for 4 hours or overnight. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grab the prepared muffin pans. Scoop the batter into the pan, using a heaping 1/4 cup of batter for each. Sprinkle the tops with sugar if desired, then bake in the preheated oven for 25-28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool in the pan for five minutes before taking them out of the pan to finish cooling on a rack.
Pumpkin Bran Muffins (Ingredients): 1 15 oz. can pumpkin, 1 cup bran cereal, 1/4 cup butter, melted, 1/2 cup (3-1/2 oz.) sugar, 2 Tbsp. (1 oz.) brown sugar, packed, 2 large eggs, 3/4 cup buttermilk, 1-1/4 cups (5 3/8 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. allspice, 1-1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 cup (6 oz.) raisins, Demarara or coarse sugar for sprinkling.