mornings at my house... Apricot~Bran Muffins with Honey Butter

     Just needed a little something with my morning cappuccino...

  + Apricot~Bran Muffins with Honey Butter +

• recipe from Cooking for the Weekend by Michael McLaughlin, slightly adapted
• I served my muffins with just honey, but I highly recommend making the honey butter

• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 2 cups unprocessed bran
• 1  1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1  1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
•1/2 cup expeller pressed canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1  1/2 cups buttermilk
• 3/4 cup diced dried apricots
• Turbinado (raw) sugar, for sprinkling
• Honey Butter (recipe follows), at room temperature
1.  Preheat oven to 375˚F.
2,  In a baking pan, toast the pine nuts, shaking them once or twice, until lightly colored.  Remove from oven and let cool.
3.  Raise oven to 400˚F.  Generously butter 16 muffin cups.
4.  In a medium bowl, stir together the bran, whole-wheat flour, salt, and baking powder.  In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and canola oil.  One at a time, whisk in the eggs.  Stir in the buttermilk, apricots, and toasted pine nuts.  Add the dry ingredients and stir just until combined; do not overmix.  Divide the batter between the 16 cups.  Generously sprinkle the muffins with Turbinado sugar.
5.  Bake about 25 minutes, until the muffins have browned.  Cool muffins in tin for 5 minutes, then unmold.  Serve with Honey Butter.

Honey Butter

• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup honey (preferably citrus honey)
1.  Combine ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.

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