Clotilde, you're onto something

I'm really into baking with yogurt. I like that it makes baked goods have a flavorful tang, and I like that it gives potentially drier cakes and muffins a delightful moistness. I volunteered to bring breakfast for my class tomorrow, and I was about to make a recipe that is already posted on here: blueberry yogurt cake (a great, but dangerous recipe--last time I ate almost the entire thing alone, in one day), but instead I opted for a healthier choice: Clotilde's Blueberry Bran Muffins.
I multiplied the recipe by 1.5 so that I'd have enough to bring to class and some leftover to eat at home and to feed my house guest, too. (I'd hate to be a visitor in someone's home and see them baking at night, and wake in the morning to an empty apartment with no goodies to breakfast on!)
Since I didn't have paper cupcake liners, I made some out of parchment paper by cutting it into 4"x4" squares and then pushing the squares into lightly greased muffin tins. This worked rather beautifully, in terms of functionality, but not in terms of actual physically beauty. That is, next time I'll cut them smaller because some of the finished baked muffins ended up with indentations where the paper bent into them (if you know me, you know this aesthetic glitch doesn't bother me at all, but it could easily disappoint others).

Physical beauty aside, these muffins were delicious. I tried one just now as a tester (wouldn't want to serve the whole class less than A+ work), and I was pleasantly surprised given the relative liquid nature of the batter pre-baking.

Blueberry Bran Yogurt Muffins (and leftovers for cake in an 8x8 pan)
adapted from Chocolate and Zucchini

1 1/2 c wheat bran
1/4 c boiling water
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 c turbinado sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 1/2 c frozen blueberries
1 1/2 c full cream vanilla or plain yogurt (I used Ronnybrook vanilla yogurt which I think is way less sweet than most)
2 eggs
3 T vegetable oil
dash vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, measure out bran. Pour hot water over bran, mix gently, and let stand 5 minutes. In a large bowl, mix other dry ingredients. Add frozen blueberries, toss to coat w/ dry mixture. In a pyrex measuring cup (or in another bowl), mix yogurt, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Add the soaked bran to the blueberry mixture. Then add the combined wet ingredients and stir until well-incorporated but allow lumps to remain (if any). Spoon into lined muffin tins or into an 8x8 inch square dish lined with parchment or lightly greased. Bake at 350- 15 minutes for muffins, 25 minutes for cake.

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