Eating "healthy" (Oat Applesauce Muffins)

Not too long ago I was on a bit of a muffin kick.  I had a touch of the muffin madness, I was making a double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins every weekend.  I even to so far as to roast my own enormous pumpkin after Halloween, puree said pumpkin, and keep pumpkin puree stockpiled in my freezer in case I need an impromptu batch of these little gems.  The madness ran so deep that I bought myself a mega-muffin pan (think Costco size) and a mini-muffin pan (makes 24 mini muffins per batch). 

I hadn't made a batch in a while, but knew I needed to make something yummy to put on this blog for my readers, so I decided to find a muffin recipe that I hadn't tried before.  We have been eating baked oatmeal every weekend, so I have a large amount of oats in the house at any given moment, and I had made a batch of slow cooker applesauce about a month ago and froze the delicious results for future use, so I needed something that incorporated both oats and applesauce.  And VOILA, Oat Applesauce Muffins was the winner!  Allrecipes onces again provided an excellent and easy recipe for a healthly little muffin.

On the topic of buttermilk: I never buy it.  I have purchased it in the past pre-made, and frankly I never use a whole half-gallon, so I always just make my own by mixing a cup of milk with a tablespoon of vinegar.  It thickens, it gets tangy, and I always have milk and vinegar so it saves an unnecessary trip to the store.  I live 5 minutes from Walmart, and still avoid going whenever possible.

Oat Applesauce Muffins (from Allrecipes, posted by Sal)

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

1 egg

There are oats in that there buttermilk

Place oats in a small bowl, pour in buttermilk. Let sit for two hours at room temperature. (I actually only did this step for as long as it took to get the rest of the ingredients together, per the recommendations in the recipe reviews)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

In a large bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and brown sugar. 

Homemade applesauce = bees' knees

Secret ingredients, the vanilla is the homemade whiskey vanilla that I am absolutely obsessed with

Stir in oat/buttermilk mixture, applesauce and egg; mix well. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups. (I also added a splash of vanilla and some cinnamon, about 1/2 to 1 tsp. of each is good)

 A big bowl of muffins

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. 


Full disclosure: these are not overly sweet and they are a little dense, and when eaten warm I thought they seemed a little "eh".  I put all of the muffins in a gallon freezer bag and let them sit and cool, and this made them soft and chewy and oh so delicious, so if these aren't your cup of tea right off the bat try the plastic bag trick while the muffins are still warm and you won't be sorry.

Coming up next: slow cooker beef stew, from another Allrecipes recipe.  It is cooking as I type this, and the smell is making me think that this one will be a keeper!  Keep you posted!