Crumbly Bran Muffins

I have a bran muffin recipe that our family grew up on. A few years ago, one of the original ingredients was discontinued in the US so the mission started to find a proper substitute...

I have come up with a substitute that tastes almost exactly the same. The only problem now is that the new version ends up a lot more crumbly.

Does anyone have any tips on how to make it less crumbly?

Here is the recipe...

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup prune juice
• 2 cup Grape Nuts Bran cereal
• 4 cup Kellogg’s All Bran cereal
• 3 cup sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 4 eggs (well beaten)
• 1 qt butter milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 tsp baking soda
• 5 cup flour

Directions

• Mix boiling water, prune juice and Grape Nuts together and let cool.
• Add eggs and butter milk and mix well.
• Add all remaining ingredients.
• Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The ingredient that is no longer made (at least in the US) is Post's 100% Bran cereal. The only cereal that I could find that was close to the same ingredients was Grape Nuts. The problem was that the 100% Bran had prunes as an ingredient so I replaced some of the water with prune juice to give it that needed flavor.

So here are the original ingredients and what was used in the substitutions...

Original

• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 cups Post's 100% Bran cereal

Substitutes

• 1 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup prune juice
• 2 cup Grape Nuts Bran cereal

I found in some other posts on the website that it was suggested to reduce the flour and baking soda just a little bit and that seems to work better. But if someone has any other insight, I would greatly appreciate it.

Also, there is one other thing that seems to be a little bit "off" from the original recipe. It seems weird, but sometimes when I make the new version the muffins are a nice dark brown (like bran muffins are supposed to be) and sometimes the muffins are a much lighter color. They taste the same, but I have never seen a recipe where the baked product could change so much in coloration from one batch to another. I mean the color differences were like a light tan and a dark brown. Very strange!

Thanks for your help!

There are 2 kinds of cereal in this recipe. The Kelloggs All Bran Original (sticks) and the Posts 100% Bran. I think I've read the same information about the "sticks" that you mention, so I do use the sticks version of the All Bran, but the other cereal is the one that I think is causing the issues. I have tried to find a "stick" version for the 100% Bran substitute but I haven't been able to find any thing.

Ingredients for the original cereal and the substitute...

Post 100% Bran:

Wheat Bran, Sugar, Malted Barley Flour, Salt, Fig and Prune Juice Concentrates

Post Grape Nuts:

Whole Grain Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Salt, Dried Yeast

Yes, that is the cereal that is no longer sold in the US. Post is actually a Canadian company and for some reason a few years ago they decided to stop selling the 100% Bran cereal here in the US. But it is available in Canada.