[Caroline has been writing this weekly column about being vegan in the Mission for a few weeks now, and as of today we decided to officially call it "Mission Vegan." Look forward to it every Wednesday!]
Can you tell the difference between the vegan bran muffins at Mission Beach Café and the ones at Four Barrel?
They’re the same shape, size and color; they both contain dried cranberries and yellow raisins, but no nuts. Both are sweet and toothsome, crunchy on top and chewy on the bottom, substantial but not dense. In other words, I consider myself a muffin connoisseur and I don’t think I could tell the difference if you paid me. I tried to do a side-by-side comparison for you, but 4B didn’t get any muffins delivered this morning (!) so you’ll have to trust me I guess.
The nice girl who works the coffee counter at MBC on weekday mornings says the muffins are made for them at a nearby bakery. Hmmm… if it was in the direction she was pointing, it was also near Four Barrel.
Well, Mission detectives, what do you know that I don’t? Same baker or just same recipe?
It’s the same bakery, but four Barrel doesn’t carry them anymore.
Your readership would love the recipe, any way we can get it???
I met the pastry chef for MBC at Rainbow yesterday as he was filling BAGS full of wheat bran. He told me people can’t get enough of his bran muffins and proceeded to give me the recipe…which I couldn’t follow after the “flax seed paste instead of eggs”…it seemed to be about as complicated as my mother-in-law’s baklava recipe. So, my vote goes w/ them being homemade.