Help me Betty Crocker!!

Back in high school and college, I worked at the Quality Inn hotel in Beaver.  We did a small complimentary breakfast and one of the items that I loved (obviously I sampled a few when I was hungry and putting breakfast away!!!) was these homemade bran muffins that my boss made.  Over the years I have craved these muffins and wished I had the recipe.  I found what I figured was the recipe since it made a ton and would keep in the fridge. I was so excited to try it out, but the end result was not what I expected, I even found the same recipe in my gma Fern's recipe book and I did everything right.  Needless to say, for some reason the muffins didn't rise and the recipe makes almost 5 dozen!!! I hated to throw it all out, so I baked most of the batter and we took them to feed the ducks.  I put about 13 in a bread bag and I swear they weighed at least 10 lbs. The ducks seemed to like them, and Troy had a great time skipping them in water (now you know just how hard they were!)   I had my mom call Colleen Dotson to get the original recipe ( why I didn't I just do that 10 years ago??) and with a few substitutions because one cereal is out of production, they turned out perfect.  Who would've known that liquid buttermilk in the carton VS. powdered buttermilk that you mix would make a difference, but it does.  So if you happened to drive past Bloomington golf course a few weeks ago,  and the ducks were moving slow and partially under water.....now you know why!!!