I bought some bran cereal to make a Weight Watcher snack.  I hated the snack.  The cereal had been taking up room in the pantry.  So I decided to make muffins or breakfast bread.  I found it is hard to find recipes that call for the cereal as most want the grain bran.  Each of these recipes called for dates.  I had figs so I used figs.  I used the book called 1001 Muffins, Biscuits, Doughnuts, Pancakes, Waffles, Popovers, Fritters, Scones and other Quick Breads.  I have had it for years and used it a lot when we lived in CA.     

Ingredients for Bread:

1 C oat bran cereal

1 C pitted dates, chopped (figs)

2/3 C hot water

1 ½ C all-purpose flour

1 T baking soda

2/3 C granulated sugar

1 t cinnamon

½ C chopped walnuts or pecans

1 t salt

2 large eggs

2 T melted butter

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease and flour 8 ½” X 41/2 “X 2 ½” loaf pan.

2.      In a small bowl, combine the bran, dates, and hot water. 

3.      In a large bowl, blend together the flour, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, walnuts and slat. 

4.      In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and butter until smooth before stirring in the bran mixture. 

5.      Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and blend until the dry ingredients are well moistened. (I had to add more water)

6.      Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, or a cake tester inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean and the top is golden. 

7.      Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan. 

Ingredients for Muffins:

1 t ground cinnamon

¼ C plus 1 t granulated sugar

1 C all-purpose flour

1 C bran flakes

1 T baking powder

½ C finely chopped walnuts or pecans

¼ C pitted dates (figs)

½ t salt

1 large egg

¼ C milk

1/3 C melted butter

Directions:

1.      Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line the muffin pan with paper cups.  Spray the paper cups.  The recipe makes 6 muffins, so I doubled it. 

2.      Set aside in a small cup 1 t each of cinnamon and sugar.

3.      In a large bowl, blend together the flour, bran flakes, baking powder, the remaining ¼ C sugar, walnuts, dates and salt. 

4.      In a medium bowl, beat the egg until foamy.  Beat in the milk and butter. 

5.      Combine the 2 mixture, blending until the dry ingredients are just moistened. 

6.      Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full.

7.      Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. 

8.      Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. 

9.      Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5-7 minutes.  Then cool completely on the wire rack. 

 

Neither of these are great, but they are using up the cereal.