Mini Pumpkin Bran Muffins with Chocolate Chips

I am part of a small subset of society, a rather exclusive club, that actually really likes bran muffins. For me, it's not an acquired taste or something I choke down because they are good for me. I've always liked them, ever since I was a kid. The ones my mother used to make were actually from a packaged mix (sorry, Mum, if I am giving away one of your trade secrets!). But they were heavenly straight out of the oven and slathered with butter. And while in grad school in Tempe, Arizona, I fell in love with the honey bran muffins from the Coffee Plantation. I could never quite figure out how they got the bottom of the muffin soaked in honey like that, but it was a mystery I was quite happy to leave unsolved as long as I could simply pay a few dollars for one.

The problem with so many bran muffins, and the reason why so many people don't like them, is that they are often as dry as sawdust. Many is the time I have bought a bran muffin, thinking it would be the healthier choice, and ended up just throwing it away. Bran needs a lot of moisture to make it palatable, a fact which woefully escapes many commercial muffin-makers. Fortunately for me, I found a great recipe several years ago in my favourite basic reference cookbook, The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. With both buttermilk and applesauce to offset the bran, these muffins are anything but dry, and the deep flavour from brown sugar and molasses is wonderful.

I wanted to make something for the kids to have as a healthy snack at school, and the crisp fall weather had me thinking pumpkin muffins. But my daughter wasn't a fan of the last pumpkin muffins I made, so I knew I had to shake things up a little. I wanted them to be healthful, but to feel like a treat to the kids. So I decided to take the basic bran muffin, swap pumpkin puree for the applesauce, reduce the sugar and sub in whole wheat for all-purpose flour. And then I tossed in a handful of mini chocolate chips, to lure my willful daughter into eating them.