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:

Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

I love my whole wheat muffins recipes, but I also like the grainy flavor that oatmeal brings to baked goods. It has a unique, earthy flavor which reminds one of fields of grain. It also pairs very well with fruit and spices, so I wanted to create a fairly basic oatmeal muffin recipe from which I can experiment with variations in the future.

This is the second iteration of cinnamon oatmeal muffins that I worked with. The first version included a sugar-free crumble topping which added a nice dimension, but wasn't all that I had hoped that it would be and it added about 50 calories per muffin. I decided that the small enjoyment brought by the topping wasn't worth the caloric price and omitted it in this final recipe. However, I hope to work a bit more with the basic topping components and come up with something in a future recipe.

On the bright side, I have found that using oats to substitute for some of the whole wheat flour makes a lighter muffin with a pleasantly texture. You can leave out the cinnamon if you'd like to pair it with a fruit spread which doesn't go well with that particular spice.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins (low-fat, sugar-free, whole grain):

1/2 cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 medium egg
3/4 cup skim milk
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup Splenda granular
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

1. Spray the bottoms only of 6 muffin cups with cooking spray.
2. Add the vinegar to the skim milk and allow to rest.
3. Put the oats in a large bowl and add applesauce, egg, milk and vinegar, salt, Splenda, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg. Stir until well mixed.
4. Sprinkle the whole wheat flour onto the oat mixture and gently stir to just moisten. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes.
5. Add the baking powder and stir just until well mixed. Don't overwork the flour or the muffins will be tough.
6. Spoon or pour into the prepared tins and bake at 2000 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
7. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and run a butter knife around the edges of the tin to loosen the muffins. Gently tap the bottom if they stick. 

Orange Ginger Muffins

I will admit that I was inspired by this recipe while perusing Better Homes and Gardens web site. They had a cake on offer which was orange and ginger. That cake was everything you'd expect, fat and sugar included. I didn't want to adapt the cake recipe, but the combination of ginger and orange sounded intriguing. It also reminded me of an episode of Fawlty Towers in which the main character, inn owner Basil Fawlty, is repeatedly asked for a "ginger and orange" drink by a guest and repeatedly fails to make it for him.

In the first experimental batch, I made this with two teaspoons of ginger, but I think that one teaspoon is a better balance. The ginger totally overwhelmed the orange flavor. I also put very thin half slices of orange on top of the muffins, but I would not recommend doing it for future efforts. It may look a little nice, but the orange adds nothing and may taste a little bitter depending on the variety of orange you are using. Mine also dried out and got a bit darker than expected.

The muffin itself had a good texture and rose very well. These are large muffins, and not quite as sweet as some my other offerings. I reduced the Splenda because I think that more weakly flavored muffins tend to be overwhelmed by sweetness if there is too much sweetener in them. I'm experimenting with pumpkin muffins and I have found that the pumpkin really faded into the background behind the sweetness so I need to tweak it some more.

Ginger Orange Muffins (sugar-free, low-fat, whole wheat):

juice and zest of 1/2 of a large orange (or one small one)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
3/4 cup Splenda granular
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. ginger
1 egg
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder

1. Add the vinegar to the milk, stir, and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
2. Whisk the juice, zest, applesauce, milk mixture, Splenda, oil, ginger, egg, and salt  together until smoothly combined.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the liquid mixture and gently stir just until the flour is moistened. Allow this to rest for 15 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C.). Spray the bottoms of 6 muffin tins with cooking spray.
5. Sprinkle the baking powder over the mixture and stir until just mixed.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups. They will be quite full.
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs. Do not overbake as it will dry out the muffins.
8. Allow to cool in the tins for at least 15 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges to loosen, pat gently if they stick to the bottom. Place on a rack for cooling.

Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator:

Blueberry Muffins

Recently, I was thinking about zucchini bread. In fall in rural Pennsylvania, where I grew up, we were inundated with zucchini at this time of year and my grandmother used to make delicious zucchini bread. I decided that I'd try to modify that recipe to make it sugar-free and low-fat, but I found that it was rather tricky to get the correct moisture balance. My zucchini bread variation came out dense, wet, and with an unappealing texture. Any time that I work with a new fruit or vegetable, the ratios have to be carefully altered to avoid this soggy outcome.

For these blueberry muffins, and my earlier raspberry orange muffins, I had to work with a stiffer batter whereas I had to work with a wetter one for the chocolate muffins. If I overload a batter which includes added fruit or vegetables (or a puree of either), it's important to reduce the milk and applesauce to stop it from getting too mushy. The chemistry of baking seems simple until you start to tweak things, and then it can easily fall apart.

Fortunately, these blueberry muffins were an easy variation on the raspberry orange recipe and came out with a great texture and balanced moisture despite being liberally speckled with blueberries. I used unsweetened frozen blueberries from Radar Farms (a brand that Costco carries). You can use fresh ones, but that may affect the texture because frozen ones tend to have a fair amount of frozen juice around them. The baking time will definitely be affected if you use fresh because the frozen berries lower the overall temperature of the batter. If you use frozen berries, I wouldn't recommend thawing them out unless you want purple muffins.

Blueberry Muffins (sugar-free, whole wheat, low-fat):

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
juice of half a small lemon
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup Splenda granular
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries

1. Add the vinegar to the milk, stir, and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes.
2. Whisk the applesauce, egg, milk, lemon juice, oil, salt, and Splenda together.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the liquid mixture and gently stir just until the flour is moistened. Allow this to rest for 15-30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C.). Spray the bottoms of 6 muffin cups with cooking spray.
5. Sprinkle the baking powder over the mixture and stir until just mixed.
6. Stir in the frozen blueberries. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool in the tins for at least 20 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges to loosen, pat gently if they stick to the bottom. Place on a rack for cooling.

It's very important to allow them to cool for awhile since the high fruit content will make them fragile until they are close to room temperature.

Nutrition calculations courtesy of the Sparkrecipes calculator:

Chocolate Muffins

Have you ever bought one of those big chocolate muffins from Costco? They have chocolate chips and are huge and sweet. Well, this muffin isn't going to rival that type of muffin, but I think it comes pretty close. To get a muffin like that, you need lots of sugar and fat. If that's what you want, I'm afraid I can't deliver something precisely like it in a whole wheat, reduced fat, sugar-free format. Of course, I'm also not going to offer something which is nearly 700 calories as the Costco muffins will provide.

Since the flavor of chocolate is carried across more effectively by sugar and fat (hence the reason it is often delivered in the form of a candy bar), it's a tall order to make a chocolate muffin without those fattening aspects and it took a few tries to get this just right. The results of my baking are a muffin which has a somewhat greater chocolate intensity than a plain chocolate cake. It's moist and the texture is excellent. As is often the case with whole wheat baked goods, these are better the next morning as it allows the moisture to balance out and the "wheaty" flavor vanishes entirely.

You can make 6 quite large muffins or 8 medium-size ones. Nutrition information is given for both at the end of the recipe. Note that this delivers a nice amount of protein for a baked item due to the whole wheat flour and cocoa powder.

picture lightened to show detail - these are actually very dark in color

Chocolate Muffins (sugar-free, reduced fat, whole wheat):

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 medium egg
3/4 cup skim milk
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup Splenda granular
3/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Van Houten)
2 tbsp. Canola oil
2 tbsp. espresso or very, very strong coffee
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder

1. Scald the milk, add to the cocoa, stir until dissolved, and allow to cool.
2. Whisk the applesauce, egg, milk, cocoa mixture, vanilla, salt, espresso, oil, cinnamon, vinegar, and Splenda together. Mix until everything is smoothly incorporated.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the liquid mixture and gently stir just until the flour is moistened. Allow this to rest for 15-30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C.). Spray the bottoms of 6 large muffin cups with cooking spray.
5. Sprinkle the baking powder over the mixture and stir until just mixed evenly.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups. They will be about 2/3 to 3/4 full.
7. Bake for 30 minutes. A skewer inserted into the center comes out with sticky crumbs, but not wet batter. Do not overbake (a skewer should not come out clean) as it will dry out the muffins.
8. Allow to cool in the tins for at least 15 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges to loosen, pat gently if they stick to the bottom. Place on a rack for cooling.

 Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator:

For 6 muffins:

For 8 muffins:

Peanut Butter Muffins

The Japanese are said to prefer their sweets less sweet than Americans, and this is reflected in their bakery's baked goods. They tend to put less sugar in them, and that has given me many years of experience with what happens when there isn't "enough" sugar in a cake or muffin. The other side of the Japanese baking method is that they use a fair amount of fat. This may surprise some people because most Japanese people have fairly trim figures.

The combination of fat with little sugar creates dry baked goods that rise well and look fine, but the texture and mouth feel are disappointing. When I first experimented with a peanut butter muffin, I found that my early results to produce a sugar-free version resembled the average Japanese muffin from the neighborhood bakery. It looked good, tasted fine, and smelled great, but was too dry. On the next experimental round, I doubled the applesauce to add heft and moisture, and got a good result.

These muffins have a bit of a peanut butter cookie taste going for them. They're not too sweet, and are great with a bit of butter or margarine or, if you'd like to have a PB & J feel, spread them with jam. If you'd like to go into peanut butter over-drive, spread them with peanut butter!

Peanut Butter Muffins (whole-wheat, sugar-free, low-fat)

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 medium egg
2/3 cup low-fat milk + 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup Splenda
4 tbsp. peanut butter
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

1. Add the vinegar to the milk, stir, and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes.
2. Whisk the applesauce, egg, milk, peanut butter, vanilla, salt, and Splenda together. Mix until the peanut butter is smoothly incorporated.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the liquid mixture and gently stir just until the flour is moistened. Allow this to rest for 15-30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C.). Spray the bottoms of 6 muffin tins with cooking spray.
5. Sprinkle the baking powder over the mixture and stir until just mixed.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups. They will be quite full.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake as it will dry out the muffins.
8. Allow to cool in the tins for at least 15 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges to loosen, pat gently if they stick to the bottom. Place on a rack for cooling.

Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator:

Raspberry Orange Muffins

Raspberries are both hard to come by and expensive for those of us living in Tokyo. Normally, I wouldn't think of doing something as "frivolous" as putting them into a baked item, but one of the local discount green grocer had a freezer case chock-full-of 1.1 lb. (500 gram) bags of frozen raspberries. "Oh happy day!" Unfortunately, I've had the experience all too often of these types of treats coming and going in a heartbeat never to return. I have the extremely temporary freedom to experiment with raspberries in my cooking.

Raspberry Orange Muffins (sugar-free, whole wheat, low-fat):

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
finely grated zest of one medium orange
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup Splenda granular
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 cup frozen raspberries

1. Add the vinegar to the milk, stir, and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes.
2. Whisk the applesauce, egg, milk, orange zest, oil, vanilla, salt, and Splenda together.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the liquid mixture and gently stir just until the flour is moistened. Allow this to rest for 15-30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C.). Spray the bottoms of 6 muffin cups with cooking spray.
5. Sprinkle the baking powder over the mixture and stir until just mixed.
6. Stir in the frozen raspberries. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool in the tins for at least 20 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges to loosen, pat gently if they stick to the bottom. Place on a rack for cooling.

It's very important to allow them to cool for awhile since the high fruit content will make them fragile until they are close to room temperature.

These were light and very tasty, though the orange zest gives them just a hint of bitterness on the first bite. If you're particularly sensitive to such flavors, you may want to simply omit the zest.

They are best within a few hours of baking, but you can revive the texture to near-fresh status if you freeze the leftovers (as early as possible-freezing stale muffins won't fix their staleness), thaw, then wrap in foil and heat them for about 5 minutes in the toaster oven. This is how I usually have my muffins since it takes several days to eat a batch of six of them.

Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator: