Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Even before I became a food blogger and got in the habit of posting recipes for you lovely people a couple or three times a week, when I went on holidays, my favorite ones included accommodation with a kitchen:  Vacation rentals from VRBO or most recently from airbnb which allow you to choose the number of beds and bathrooms and well-equipped kitchens.  Right after hanging out on a beach, my favorite holiday activity is poking through foreign markets and grocery stores and cooking up my discoveries.  I know this is contrary to many folks’ idea of a get-away.  In fact, I’ve been told it’s abnormal and eating out and not having to cook is the whole idea of a holiday.  What can I say?  At least my hobby is useful. :)  What’s your favorite thing to do on holiday?  Ever bought a weird ingredient?

What I bought on this trip to Ecuador: plantain flour, quince paste and rib stock cubes.

This week’s Muffin Monday ingredient is oatmeal.  Since I was visiting my father and his wife and I had no idea what their kitchen was like, I brought along some of those little foil cups.  They work pretty good, if you don’t mind that they spread out a little, your muffins end up flattish on top and sometimes a little batter oozes over the sides while baking. 

Ingredients

For the muffin batter:

1 1/2 cups or 190g all purpose flour

1/2 cup or 45g oatmeal

3/4 cup or 170g dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup or 240ml milk

1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs

1/2 cup chocolate chips (plus extra for sprinkling on after the crumble)

For the crumble:

1/4 cup or about 30g plain flour

1/4 cup or 50g dark brown sugar

2 rounded tablespoons or 30g soft unsalted butter

1/4 cup or 22g oatmeal

1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

Preheat oven 350°F or 180°C and prepare muffin pan by greasing or lining with paper muffin cups or putting those little foil muffin cups on a bigger baking pan.

In a large bowl mix together your flour, oatmeal, dark brown sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a smaller bowl, whisk your milk, melted butter and eggs.

Prepare your topping by mixing together the crumble ingredients with a fork.  Set aside.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and stir until just combined. 

Now fold in the chocolate chips, keeping a few back for topping, if desired.

Evenly distribute the batter among the muffin cups. 

Top with the crumble and scatter a couple of reserved chocolate chips.

Gently press down into the batter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Remove the muffins from the muffin pan. 

Enjoy!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street, a culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.  Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  Make sure to go and check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with this week!

Plus learn all you ever need to know about muffins, right here at Muffin 101.

Caramel Apple Bacon Muffins for #MuffinMonday

During the first couple of years of our married expat life, we lived in Abu Dhabi and I was able to get an employment pass to work.  As editor and copywriter at a small publishing house and advertising agency, and the only native English speaker in the production team, I was responsible for everything written that went out from print ads to annual reports to the British Club magazine, which I edited.  The office was tiny so camaraderie was big.

My fellow expats, and we were all expats because it’s not often you find Emiratis in a regular office job, were a friendly bunch, but after the first year, I heard of a public relations manager position open at the InterContinental Hotel.   I applied and got the job, thinking to myself that no matter where we were transferred next for my husband’s job, the experience would be valuable because, hey, everywhere had hotels, right?  I guess you know where I am headed with this.  The next place was Balikpapan, Indonesia, a little oilfield town on the southeast corner of the island of Borneo.  While there was one relatively decent hotel, my passport was stamped Employment Prohibited.  For the rest of my expat life, that stamp or similar has been a permanent part of each move.  (Aside from Paris, but that’s another story entirely.)  So I volunteer.  I put my writing and editing and public relations skills to work for my daughters’ schools and non-profit organizations.  And through the years, I have found the camaraderie of that Abu Dhabi office in many places and many organizations.

This is a very long way around telling you that in Houston, Texas, I used a jam that was given to me by a fellow expat with whom I served on the board of directors at the American Association of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.  Times were tough a few years back and Kristy and her husband needed a home in Houston while he began treatment for brain cancer.   This jam was part of a thank you gift from her home state of Missouri and it has been in my refrigerator, unopened, just waiting for the right moment.  This is it.  I hope you have some good friends to work with who gift you with jam as well.  Use it for muffins.

Ingredients
5 slices or rashers streaky bacon
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
3/4 cup or 170g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola oil
1/3 cup or 80ml caramel apple jam
2 eggs

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.   If you have gingham cups your sweet daughter bought you at the Providence opening of Sur La Table, they would be perfect. (Thanks, Cecilie!)

Fry your bacon relatively crispy, drain on paper towels, then and chop it up with a large knife.

Combine your flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your milk, egg and oil.

Add in the caramel apple jam and whisk to incorporate.

Pour your egg/milk mixture into your dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

If you have a vegetarian or two in your household, like I do, you can scoop some batter into a couple of muffin cups right now, before adding the bacon.  This means that the other 10 muffins will have more bacon, but more bacon is always a good thing.

Now fold in the bacon bits, reserving just a few for topping, if desired.

Divide the muffin batter between the muffin cups.

Top each cup with a few of the bacon bits for decoration, avoiding those without bacon inside, of course.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Remove the muffins and cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street, a culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.  Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  Make sure to go and check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with this week!

Plus learn all you ever need to know about muffins, right here at Muffin 101.

Olive Parmesan Cocktail Muffins for #MuffinMonday

This weekend we celebrated the achievements of our elder daughter, the beautiful and talented Victoria.  But her graduation from Rhode Island School of Design was tinged with sadness for our family because, as we flew north for the weekend, we lost one of our patriarchs.  If you have been reading for a while, you’ve heard about my wonderful mother-in-law and how she has cared for her ailing husband, through increasing infirmity throughout this last year.  As she held that sweet, caring man in the wee hours of Friday morning, he passed peacefully from this world and was freed.

We had just been up to their home for a quick overnight after arriving in from Dubai, and before leaving for Providence.  As I usually do, I cooked dinner (this time with help from my own dear mother) and my mother-in-law invited her friends for drinks and a meal.  It’s my way of giving her a break and repaying the many kindnesses and constant support her closest friends provide when we are away.  I made these little olive Parmesan muffins for appetizers.  Bob ate one as part of his evening meal that night.  We didn’t expect that when we left the next day, we would never see him again.  After all, this time, we would only be gone three days.  But the ache of missing is there and real.

A couple of years ago, I wrote Bob a letter, which my sister printed for me and gave to him on the occasion of the joint celebration of his birthday and Fathers’ Day, thanking him for the part he played in raising my husband to be the wonderful father and husband he is.  When he married their mother, Bob took on day-to-day responsibility for three more young boys, in addition to his two.  Together, he and Heather had one more.  The stories of “yours, mine and our” holidays with six boys were rollicking and joyous, but I am sure they required a logistical mastermind and a firm hand and an enormous sense of humor.  I am more grateful than ever today that I wrote down the words and that Bob read them and knew of my gratitude.  It is a debt I can never repay, no matter how many meals I cook or muffins I bake.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
1 cup, grated, or 90g Parmesan cheese (plus a little extra for after baking, optional)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup pimento stuffed olives (Sorry, I forgot to weigh them.  I will add that measure on Tuesday when I am reunited with the balance of the jar.)

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and liberally grease your two 12-cup mini muffin pans.

Grate your Parmesan, if not already grated, and cut the olives into three or four slices each.

Set aside 24 middle slices for decoration, making sure you have red and green represented in each slice.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, salt, baking powder and Parmesan.

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk your eggs, milk and oil.

Fold your liquids into the dry ingredients until just mixed.

Fold in the sliced olives.

Divide the batter between the prepared cups in the muffin pan.

Top each with a reserved olive slice.

Bake in your preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are lovely and golden.

Sprinkle on a little more Parmesan, if desired.  More cheese always equals better.

Allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes then remove to a wire rack to continue cooling.

These are fabulous warm and go great with a glass of wine or whatever cocktail you are serving.

If there is anything my father-in-law enjoyed, it was a good meal.  Bob didn’t talk much in his later years because, after surviving cancer of the larynx 30 years ago, he spoke with esophageal speech, using swallowed air and his stomach muscles to create sound.  As he aged, and his muscle tone declined, he was less able to muster the strength required.  But Bob was lavish with his smiles and his  “thumbs up” whenever he was pleased.  The twinkle in his eyes said more than words ever could anyway.  He was one of my most generous supporters and, except for onions, he ate everything I made with relish and two thumbs up.

On 20 June, he would have been 85.  Happy almost Fathers' Day and almost Birthday, Robert Martin Lane.  You were one of the good guys and you are deeply missed.

Muffin Monday is an initiative by BakerStreet.   A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.   Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  Make sure to go and check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with this week!

Plus learn all you ever need to know about muffins, right here at Muffin 101.

Piña Colada Muffins for #MuffinMonday

A quick question for you, as I pack my bags to fly back to the US (BECAUSE MY FIRST BABY GIRL IS GRADUATING FROM UNIVERSITY!) for reasons that don't seem possible, given that I only feel about 24 myself.  Have you ever cooked or baked with coconut oil? This is my first time and I have to admit it reminds me of beaches and Hawaiian Tropic suntanning oil.  But in a good way.  Combining it with pineapple in these muffins, I am back on my honeymoon in Barbados, sipping piña coladas.  While the health-professional jury is still out, it seems that coconut oil does have some benefits.  All I can tell you is that it was a great way to add coconut flavor to my muffins, without actually adding more fat in the form of grated coconut, in addition to the usual canola or butter.  Which makes me think it might be a good addition to curries as well, instead of coconut milk.  What do you think?  Coconut oil, yay or nay?

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
1/2 cup or 115g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml coconut oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml pineapple syrup (from canned pineapple)
About 3/4 cup or 140g canned pineapple, drained weight

1/8-1/4 cup or 10-20g sweetened flaked coconut for decoration (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by greasing or lining with paper muffin cups.

Drain your small can of pineapple and reserve the syrup.  Chop the pineapple up with a big knife.  Or a small knife.  I’m flexible.

Set aside a small pile of pineapple for adding to the muffin tops before baking.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.

In another bowl, whisk together milk, coconut oil, pineapple syrup, vanilla and eggs.

That's the coconut oil.  I don't know what I expected it to look like since bottle
was not see-through but the white surprised me. 

Add all the milk mixture to the flour mixture.

Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Then fold in your small pile of pineapple bits.

Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

Top each cup of batter with a few pieces of the reserved pineapple and sprinkle with a few coconut flakes, if using.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing muffins from tin.  Cool further on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street, a culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.  Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  Make sure to go and check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with this week!

Plus learn all you ever need to know about muffins, right here at Muffin 101.