Breakfast Muffins

muffins with blueberries

If you have some leftover cherry pie filling, or if you have some other berries or fruit, you could make some BREAKFAST MUFFINS the next morning. Muffins don't take very long to make, and they can be baking while you are getting ready for your day. These muffins are nutritious enough for breakfast, although around here they get eaten throughout the day until they are gone. You will need a twelve hole muffin tin for these. It could probably also be baked as a cake, if you don't have muffin tins, but the baking time would be more like fifty minutes to an hour, whereas muffins bake at 350 F in about half an hour.

These muffins are an inexact recipe which can be adjusted to suit whatever ingredients you have on hand, and adjusting for flavor preferences and how much fat and sugar you want in them. They don't have to contain rolled oats, but since they are breakfast muffins, I think they are better for that addition.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a mixing bowl pour two cups of rolled oats.

Add two cups of whole wheat pastry flour.

Add one tablespoon of baking powder (non-aluminum variety, like Rumford), and a sprinkle of salt.

Stir that around and add about a teaspoon of vanilla.

Add anywhere from three tablespoons of sunflower (or other oil) to half a cup. Stir it around

Add anywhere from one fourth cup to half a cup of sweetener. I guess you could put in more, but then they wouldn't be such a good breakfast food. I used agave syrup, which is low-glycemic, (LATER NOTE: this product is marketed as low-glycemic, but a diabetic friend recently told me when she tried it it made her feel just like sugar would have done, so please use it with caution) but you could use whatever sweetener you prefer. I like maple syrup, organic sugar or Sucanat (a brown sugar which is less refined). Don't forget you'll be adding fruit which can add to the sweetness, especially if you add something like raisins or dates.

Add the fruit. In this case, the cherries had a lot of juice, so I didn't have to add much more liquid.

If it is not yet a lumpy wet batter, stir in some liquid. You could use water or soymilk or some fruit juice.

Oil the muffin tin holes and scoop some muffin batter into each hole, almost to the top, or slightly over the top. The worst that will happen is that they will be harder to get out of the pan after baking, if you over fill. Not impossible, just harder. But you might end up with just a little too much batter, in which case I usually just try to distribute it as best I can. If you've somehow made way too much, just cook it separately in something else (a little pan? A custard cup?) The batter will be pretty gloppy, so you may want to clean in between the muffin holes before you bake them.

Bake at 350 for approximately twenty-five to thirty-five minutes—again, your oven may be hotter or cooler than mine, so you will have to pay attention and take them out when they are cooked through but not scorched. You could use a toothpick to see if they are cooked in the middle, and use your nose to make sure they are not scorching. I only recently scorched a batch, because I baked them at 425 for about 35 minutes, and even then the tops of them were edible.

Let them cool a bit before trying to remove them with a knife, or just eat them in hot falling apart pieces if you are really hungry.

Blueberry, chopped walnuts, cinnamon; chopped dates, chopped pecans; pineapple chunks, coconut flakes; cranberry, raspberry; apple chunks or applesauce, chopped walnuts, cinnamon; there are a bunch of different variations on these. Look up a gluten free baking mix recipe on line, if you are avoiding gluten. Muffins are adaptable to many dietary needs. It is so nice to have a little snack to bring somewhere or turn to when you're hungry and don't feel like cooking later on in the day, so be a friend to your future self and bake yourself some muffins.