Friday, June 21, 2013

Home on the Range Recipe: Maple Oatmeal Muffins

For a long time, I've wanted an oatmeal muffin recipe, but none of them seemed to work very well. They were dry or dense or bland. So I started to experiment until I came up with one that we all love and that uses ingredients I usually have in the cupboards. (What to make when I don't have bananas for banana nut muffins or zucchini for chocolate zucchini muffins?) I think it makes a good solid snack muffin for my family.

As always, I use my kitchen scale to measure out the ingredients. I've given estimates using measuring cups. Let me know if I made any mistakes.

Maple Oatmeal Muffins

3 1/2 oz quick-cooking oatmeal (1 cup)
12 oz low-fat vanilla or plain yogurt (1 1/2 cups)

3 eggs
3 3/4 oz brown sugar (1/2 cup)
8 oz unsweetened applesauce (1 cup)
2 3/4 oz maple syrup (1/4 cup)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp maple flavoring (optional)

5 oz whole wheat flour (1 1/4 cup)
3 3/4 oz ground flaxseed (3/4 cup)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)

1 1/2 cups yummy add-ins - The kids prefer frozen blueberries (7 1/2 oz). Kansas Dad and I like chopped pecans (5 5/8 oz).
  1. Mix the quick-cooking oats with the yogurt. Let it sit for at least five minutes.
  2. Mix the wet ingredients (eggs through the maple flavoring). Add the yogurt and oatmeal mixture.
  3. Add the dry ingredients (whole wheat flour through nutmeg). I add it all to the bowl and then mix. It's good to leave a few streaks.
  4. Add the blueberries, pecans, or whatever else you want to try. Again, it's alright to leave a few streaks of the dry ingredients.
  5. Scoop into muffin pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of your muffins and your oven; I tend to make small muffins in a very hot oven so they don't take very long).
If you don't have ground flaxseed, you can add 1/4 cup vegetable oil with the wet ingredients instead.

Feel free to Pin or share this recipe, but please do not post it in its entirety in another location and always include a link to this post. Thanks for respecting the time I spent perfecting this recipe.