Oatmeal Cookie Muffins

You should know – there aren’t actually oatmeal cookies in these muffins. They are muffins that taste like oatmeal cookies.

Now that that’s out of the way. These muffins are healthy and tasty. They are full of whole grains, healthy fats and spicy flavor. They contain more sugar than some I’ve made in the past, but that makes them a winner with kids (and people who like sugar, which is most people). The whole wheat flour, oats, flax, walnuts, etc. keeps them well on the “healthy” side of the muffin spectrum, but if you like your baked goods less sweet than I would omit the white sugar entirely. I don’t think you’ll miss it much.

A word on buttermilk. You probably think it’s bad for you, right? Wrong. Buttermilk has the same stats as 1% milk. It IS, in fact, 1% milk with an enzyme added to thicken it and make it tangy – great for baking, bad for smelling and drinking (obvi).

Next, white chocolate – great in these muffins. I detest white chocolate in real life, or “straight”, I should say, but in baked goods it’s just lovely. It changes somehow. Anyway, these are one of my favorite muffin recipes. Oh, normally I make my muffins without liners (liners are for cupcakes!), but I had a kind of hard time getting these out of the pan. I will use liners next time, and I recommend them for this recipe. Next time I’ll try this subbing an all purpose gluten free flour – since the recipe only calls for 1 cup, I think it will work nicely (if you try it first, let me know).

 Oatmeal Cookie Muffins

makes 16 standard muffins

2 1/3 c. oats

1 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. ground flax seed

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 c. buttermilk

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 c. boiling water

1 c. white chocolate chips

1/2 c. finely chopped dried apricots

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper or foil liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix oats, flour, walnuts, sugars, flax, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together with a whisk.

3. In a smaller bowl, whisk buttermilk, canola oil, egg and vanilla together.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just combined.

5. Add boiling water to mixture and stir to combine. Let stand five minutes.

6. Fold in chocolate and apricots.

7. Fill muffin liners 2/3 of the way full.

8. Bake for 20 minutes or until no longer wet in the center of each muffin.

9. Cool on a wire rack and keep covered at room temperature for several days.