Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal "Muffins"

I mentioned in my post about the materials that I use that I own a silicone muffin "tin", but I rarely use it because I haven't had good results. My two main problems with it were that, if I sprayed it with oil or cooking spray first, the baked items didn't rise properly. If I didn't spray it and they rose properly, having to twist and manipulate the cups to get the muffins out caused them to be torn apart. Usually, the bottom "stumps" would get wrenched off or ripped up.

This recipe marks the first successful use of my silicone muffin "tin". I figured out one very important aspect which isn't exactly clearly explained on "how to" sites. That is that you have to allow whatever you bake in it to completely cool before removal or they are too fragile to survive the twisted or peeling of the silicone support structure. It's not enough to let them cool to the touch or reasonably well, they have to be nearly room temperature.

I usually make my baked oatmeal in a glass loaf pan and slice it into 6 slices, but I haven't been entirely happy with the uneven baking that sometimes comes along with this. The center tends to be rather moister than the two ends. This was what motivated me to try this particular recipe in muffin cups. I'm sure that it would work equally well in regular tins if you don't have silicone. Just make sure you spray the bottoms of the tins before you add the batter. I didn't use spray of any kind in the silicone "tin" that I used.

This is a recipe that I've been fine-tuning for awhile, and I was extremely pleased with the result. Though there are only 3 tablespoons of whole wheat flour in these, they really do seem more cake-like than one would expect. I'm thinking that all of the fat from the peanut butter plays a significant role in the texture. They taste a lot like a peanut butter cookie to me and offer 8 grams of protein in a small package. I'm not sure why the sodium value is so high on this, but I imagine the Spark Recipes calculator uses a particular commercial peanut butter as its baseline for the sodium values. If you use natural or a reduced sodium brand, you can likely get something a lot better than the calculations show.

Peanut Butter baked oatmeal (sugar-free, reduced fat, whole grain):

1 medium egg
5 tbsp. peanut butter
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup granular Splenda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (not quick-cooking)
3 tbsp. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder

1. Prepare muffin cups by spraying the bottoms of metal cups. If using silicone cups, do not spray.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C.
3. Add the vinegar to the skim milk and allow to rest for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the egg and peanut butter to a large bowl and whisk until smooth.
5. Add the milk mixture, vanilla, applesauce, Splenda and salt to the peanut butter mixture and whisk until smooth.
6. Sprinkle the oatmeal over the liquid, sprinkle the whole wheat flour and baking powder over the oatmeal.
7. Stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed.
8. Spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups.
9. Bake for 30 minutes.

Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator: