Retro Refrigerator Bran Muffins with Kefir

Summer seems to be here to stay now.  We've had some gorgeous weather and already had the camper van out for our first overnight camping adventure.  Poor planning led to us spending the night, not at our original choice of campground but instead we drove a little farther down the highway and ended up in the same campground as one of our neighbours.  Ike was tickled pink as he totally monopolized their children for hours or play.  I had brought along some crochet and a cookbook that I'd left in the van last summer and had forgotten all about.  I get more reading out of cookbooks than I do magazines..... and this one seemed to contain some recipes worthy of trying.  One the recipes was for refrigerator bran muffins (some times called 6 week bran muffins).  I remember  this recipe was all the rage back in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  You would make up a batch of batter and keep it in a 3 litre ice cream pail in your refrigerator and bake them up as needed.  I remembered them as being good, but had not had them for years, and quite honestly, the idea of a muffin batter ready to go in the fridge was a bit appealing.  There are many recipes for this muffin out there....some calling for butter....others for oil.....some with molasses and yet others without. Not knowing which recipe my mom used when I was little....I pulled open my old copy of Company's Coming (Muffins & More).  For those of you not familiar with Canadian cook books.....this series of cookbooks by Jean Pare called 'Company's Coming' is an extremely well know set here.  The Muffins & More book is filled with some extremely good favourites that turn out perfect every time for me....so I do love this book in her series.  Her recipe called for buttermilk, and in the interest of trying out more ways to use up kefired milk....I made a straight substitution....other than that....I followed the recipe (only I made a half batch which filled the bowl of my Kitchen Aid).......We'll be good for a few weeks of muffins. To change it up I'll add some frozen blueberries, huckleberries, or raspberries to the next few dozen I bake up.  To start out with....I did it the original way with the sultanas.  And in case you are wondering..........They were delicious:)  With hot weather coming up and more time outside and less time in the kitchen......this recipe is really going to work for me.....maybe it will work for you too.

Refrigerator (6 week) Bran Muffins

4 cups Bran flakes cereal
2 cups All Bran cereal (they look like little twigs)
2 cups boiling water
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
4 eggs
4 cups milk kefir
1/4 cup Molasses
5 cups flour, all purpose
2 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups sultanas

Place both cereals and boiling water in a large bowl to soften, and leave to stand.  Cream together the sugars and the butter, then beat in the eggs beating after each egg.  Add in the kefired milk, molasses, and cereal mixture.  Stir to combine.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sultanas.  Mix flour mixture into the  batter.  Stir to combine.  Store in the refrigerator until ready to use ( up to 6 weeks)  When ready to bake....preheat oven to 400F.  Fill greased muffin tins 3/4 full of batter.  Bake 20-25 minutes until cake tester or toothpick comes out clean and tops spring back when pressed. Let muffins cool in pans for 5 minutes before tipping out.  You can (after the 5 minutes) slide a butter knife around the edges before turning the muffins out.