From My Southwest Kitchen: Oatmeal Muffins

Oatmeal Muffins

I baked some oatmeal muffins this morning for breakfast from a recipe I found in Cook's Illustrated magazine. Not only does this magazine have great recipes, I learn great cooking techniques. OK, back to the muffins. Oats are what give these muffins flavor -there are no spices in the muffin batter. The oats used in these muffins are toasted in butter. They smell wonderful as they are toasting - kinda of like popcorn. To me, toasting brought out the nutty flavor of the oats which contributed to the muffins wonderful taste. The oats are then ground and mixed with flour, salt, baking powder, and baking, soda. Butter and sugar are combined separately. Milk and eggs are added to the egg and sugar mixture. The mixture is whisked until smooth. Next the wet and dry ingredients are combined. A technique known as whisk folding was used to combine the wet an dry ingredients. In whisk folding, a whisk in drawn down and up through the batter before being tapped against the side of the bowl. This knocks out any clumps of batter back into the mixture. This technique rids the batter of large clumps and preserves the moist texture.
The muffin batter is then topped with a topping consisting of oatmeal, flour, pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon salt and butter.
The muffins are baked in standard muffin times for about 25 minutes. Cool and serve.

You can serve the muffins plain or with butter, jam, or your favorite muffin spread. These muffins were delicious, moist, hearty, and very satisfying. A perfect bowl of oatmeal in the form of a muffin.

Oatmeal Muffins
From Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:

Muffin Topping

Topping
1/2 cup (1-1/2 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup ( 1-2/3 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup pecans, chopped fine
1/3 cup packed (2-1/3 ounces) light brown sugar
1-1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Muffins
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 6 tablespoons melted
2 cups (6 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
1-3/4 cups (8-3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/3 cups packed (9-1/3 ounces) light brown sugar
1-3/4 cups milk
2 large eggs, beaten

Directions:

1. For The Topping: Combine oats, flour, pecans, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in medium bowl. Drizzle melted butter over mixture and stir to thoroughly combine; set aside.
2. For The Muffins: Grease and flour 12-cup muffin tin. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add oats and cook, stirring frequently, until oats turn golden brown and smell of cooking popcorn, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer oats to food processor and process into fine meal, about 30 seconds. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to oats and pulse until combined, about 3 pulses.

Oats Toasting

Oats Toasted

3. Stir 6 tablespoons melted butter and sugar together in large bowl until smooth. Add milk and eggs and whisk until smooth. Using whisk, gently fold half of oat mixture into wet ingredients, tapping whisk against side of bowl to release clumps. Add remaining oat mixture and continue to fold with whisk until no streaks of flour remain. Set aside batter for 20 minutes to thicken. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees.
4. Using ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (about 1/2 cup batter per cup; cups will be filled to rim). Evenly sprinkle topping over muffins (about 2 tablespoons per muffin). Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 18 to 25 minutes, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking.
5. Let muffins cool in muffin tin on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove muffins from muffin tin and serve or let cool completely before serving.

Makes 12 muffins