When we were growing up, Momma always had a bean crock that was big enough to hold a monster batch of bran muffin batter. She would have it tucked in the back of the refrigerator; and whenever she didn’t have time to whip up a snack or something to go with the soup at dinner, out would come that crock of muffin batter. Within two minutes, she’d have muffins in a tin and in the oven.

Her secret was long-lasting refrigerator batter for muffins, cookies, and rolls. Sour milk was often the secret ingredient that made this possible. And she had some tricks up her sleeve when it came to leavening - one of the most important elements in baking.

With the right recipe, you get to call the shots for how long this leavening lasts. Normal recipes can, with a few tweaks, become long-lasting batters that you can whip out of the refrigerator days, even weeks, later—on those cluttered, duty-filled days!

You can look in many of the old cookbooks for these refrigerator muffins, cookies, and rolls. Many of them have been reinvented and reintroduced online as well.

Here’s Momma’s tried-and-true bran muffin recipe that was my comfort food growing up.