Whole Wheat Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

I'm craving sweets.  Real bad.  Lots of sweets.  Anything I can get my hands on really.  And this is happening during one of the worst possible times of the year - Halloween candy is EVERYWHERE!!  I overdid it yesterday and felt it in the afternoon.  But, nonetheless I woke up this morning with more sweets on the brain.  Pregnancy, sigh.  After a quick look on Facebook this morning, I found that Team ACT had posted a picture of her Super Easy 2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins and decided it was high time for some pumpkin in these parts!  One problem.  No cake mix.  Doh!  SO, online searching I went.  These from Kitchen Treaty are moist and delicious, just like the pumpkin muffins Team ACT made, but they do require a little more time.  Good news, however, (Miss Team ACT :)) ... they're even better if you add chocolate chips to the mix!!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Oat Muffins - from this delicious site!

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats + 2 tablespoons for topping

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt (I omitted)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger ---  (Note:  

1/4 tsp ground cloves ---  For these 4, you can substitute

1/4 tsp ground cloves ---  1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg --  instead. I used 1/2 tsp.)

1 cup buttermilk (see note below to make your own)

3/4 cup pure pumpkin puree (I used half of a 15 oz can)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used ~1/4 cup maple syrup instead)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil (you can substitute applesauce if you prefer)

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

 1) Gather ingredients.  It looks like a lot - but it pays to gather everything before you get started.  Heat oven to 400 degrees.  (Oops, I set mine to 350 and cooked them a little longer than suggested - so that works too!)  Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners.

 2) If you don't have buttermilk, you can make your own.  Stir one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into 1 cup of milk and let sit 10 minutes before using.  I just squeezed half a lemon in.

3) Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, 1 cup oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & spices.  Stir to combine.

 4) Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl: buttermilk, pumpkin, white sugar (in my case - maple syrup), brown sugar, oil, egg & vanilla.  Whisk well to combine. 

 5) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, whisking just until the ingredients are combined.  Divide among 12 muffin cups.  I used my trusty ice cream scoop.  Have I told you lately how much I love that thing?? NO mess!

 6) Divide 2 tablespoons oats between the 12 muffins.  Bake for 15 minutes, until the top of the muffins spring back when poked and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  (At 350 degrees, I baked mine for about 17 minutes - the toothpick wasn't quite clean, but I was afraid of overbaking them.)

 7) If you have extra batter, I highly suggest adding some mini chocolate chips!  Or if you feel so inclined - add the chocolate chips to the whole batter - they're delicious in it!!

 7b) At 350 degrees, I baked these for 10 minutes.  Again, the toothpick wasn't quite clean - so probably another 1 - 2 minutes would have been equally fine.  At 400 degrees, I would definitely bake these at 8 minutes and adjust time as needed.

 All that's left is to enjoy these babies.  Oh so good!!!

The Verdict

These are exactly what I was hoping they'd be.  Moist, delicious, with a hint of pumpkin.  My DH doesn't love pumpkin flavoring so I think he actually might enjoy these since they just have a hint of the pumpkin flavor.  I think it would be good to have added 1 full tsp of the pumpkin pie spice instead of just the 1/2 tsp that I added - but again, I'm trying to please the masses ;)  And let's just say Little One and I have almost cleared out the mini muffins with chocolate chips.  Yikes!  But, hey, it's better than the 3 big cookies I ate yesterday!  At least these have some nutritional value.  

Now, if you prefer, I have successfully used unsweetened applesauce as a substitute instead of oil.  It's a 1:1 substitution (it makes baked goods a little softer and sweeter usually).  If you don't have unsweetened applesauce on hand, make sure to lessen the amount of sugar you use.  If you are skeptical at first, you can feel free to start with using half applesauce and half oil of what the recipe calls for and adjust from there. 

Want to freeze?  Simply freeze in a freezer safe bag or container. Let one (or more) thaw overnight on the counter and pop it in the microwave for a few seconds in the morning to rewarm it.

Did I fail to mention these would make a wicked dessert with the addition of some Nutella swiped across the top?  Oh, I did?  Consider yourself warned.  I'm trying it this afternoon!

Happy Fall!