GF Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Yes, you heard that right! Widlflours has moved to TX!  While we miss the familiar surroundings of the Fox Valley Illinois area, we are getting to know new places in the DFW area.  It has been quite an adventure so far!  You may remember my article about soaking oatmeal a while ago… seems as the summer wears on, I tend to seek out ways to eat oatmeal without the “hot temperature required”!  I am not a fan of cold, cooked oatmeal.  Don’t mind it cold, raw though!  In that article, I shared with you an Oatmeal Cookie recipe.  This time, I would like to share one of my kids favorite breakfast muffins.  The star in these muffins is the gluten free oats.  Our oldest teen especially loves snatching up 3-4 of these morning glories on the way out the door to school or whatever is planned for the day.  Seems to fill what that growing teen needs to get through the morning!  I don’t feel bad about these muffins in the morning either as the sugar is so low and I know they will provide plenty of good fuel for the start of the day.  These are versatile, make them with just about anything you have in your gluten/allergy free cupboard kind of muffins!!  By far, my kids love the banana/chocolate chip version the best.  However, here are many of the other combinations that have been shared around our table to get you interested:

• Banana (with or without chocolate chips!)
• Apple Cinnamon (with or without golden raisins) – increase cinnamon in recipe by 1/2 – 1 tsp depending on desired taste
• Blueberry
• Blueberry Banana
• Blueberry Coconut
• Coconut Lime – make sure to add the zest of the lime
• Coconut Pumpkin Seed – toast the pumpkin seeds lightly first before adding to the batter
• Raspberry or Blackberry (or both!)
• Cherry
• Pear Cranberry
• Fig
• Dates with Orange Zest
• Homemade granola with dried fruit and seeds
• Pumpkin Pie – use pumpkin pie spices in place of the cinnamon
• Savory Bacon & Cheddar (!!!) – use dairy or non dairy cheddar cheese and either lower the sugar or omit it altogether

The list could go on, seriously!  We are a nut free family, but I am sure there would be wonderful combinations with walnuts or almonds if we could.  The other really great thing about these muffins is they are forgiving.  That is essential when baking without typical allergy ingredients.  It is also awesome when the pantry is bare but you still want muffins the next morning!  So many times I have started making these and found I am missing one or more ingredients on the list (say, coconut milk!…) Yes, these even work substituting plain ‘ol water for the milk (use less water than milk if you try this)!  Only have one egg, no problem!  No ground flax seed, that works too!  Just remember to save your leftover oatmeal, that is the star here… but wait!  YES, you can make them with another cooked grain.  I have used cooked millet and quinoa successfully.  Cooked rice may make the muffins very dense, but if you try it, let me know how that goes!

Anyway, here’s the recipe… Enjoy!

GF Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Dry Ingredients:

• 3 cups Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour (whatever you have on hand!  Just make sure the flour to starch ratio is just about 1 to 1).  Here is my favorite GF flour combination for these muffins:  3/4 cup sorghum flour, 3/4 cup millet flour, 1/4 cup teff flour, 1/2 cup tapioca starch, 3/4 cup arrowroot starch
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar (if you don’t have it, use regular sugar or brown sugar… I have even made these with NO sugar!  The fruit is often enough to sweeten!)
• 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 2 Tbls baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 – 1 tsp cinnamon – can be omitted or increased depending on the other ingredients you choose to use
• 1/4 cup – 1/2 cup coconut flakes or ground flax seeds, or a combination of both.  You can omit if needed!

Wet Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs (you can use 1 egg plus 2 Tbls of applesauce or egg replacer of your choosing, eggs give a nice rise so note that without eggs the muffins may be a bit more dense)
• 2 cups cooked and cooled oatmeal (leftover is best as it has had time to absorb extra water)
• 1 – 1 1/2 cups milk of choice, divided (favorite here is coconut milk; however other milk or milk alternatives work just as well!)
• 1 lime, juiced (can use the zest of the lime if you wish! If you don’t have lime, either apple cider vinegar or lemon will work, or substitute buttermilk or yoghurt for some or all of the milk)
• 4 Tbls coconut oil or ghee, melted (or you can use butter or palm oil shortening… even olive oil will work!)  NOTE: don’t skip the fat, your brain needs fats for fuel to think and grow, so keep this one in there for sure!

Mix In’s:

• 1/2 cup or more of your favorite pantry mix in’s (see suggestions above – just make sure to dice large fruit or dried fruit into small pieces)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line 24 muffin tin cups with paper muffin cup liners or spray liberally with GF pan spray.  Set aside.
2. In a large work bowl, add all dry ingredients and mix together with a fork to combine well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk your eggs.  Then, add the rest of the wet ingredients to the eggs, using only 1 cup of milk to start.  You will want to mix the wet ingredients together and break up the cooked oatmeal as much as possible.
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with fork or spoon by hand to combine.  If muffin batter is very stiff, add the additional 1/2 cup milk and mix to combine.  No electric mixer required here!
5. Mix in your pantry mix in’s (diced fruit, etc) gently by hand.
6. Fill muffin cups with batter and bake in the preheated 400 degree oven for 20 – 25 minutes.  Tops should be golden brown.
7. Remove muffins from muffin tin quickly and cover with a towel, let them sit for 10 minutes to cool.

Recipe makes 24 breakfast muffins…  Enjoy with butter or cream cheese if you wish… or just straight from the basket as you dash out the door in the morning!