Whole Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins #MuffinMonday

Buttermilk-soaked rolled oats and whole wheat flour, combined with pumpkin puree and a handful of chocolate chips for flair, make these less-sugar muffins sweet yet wholesome.

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As I think about my favorite recipes using farm fresh ingredients, I'm realizing how often I feed my family muffins.  Muffins for breakfast.  Muffins for after school snack.  With dinner.  Muffins to school or work or social functions.  Pretty much if there's an occasion to bring food, I've probably made muffins.  In addition to this recipe, you can find all my muffin recipes, from Apple Cider Forgot the Sugar to Zucchini Nutella,  to your right in desktop view, or  down below in mobile view----> in my Recipe Index by Category.

I get this desire to feed the world muffins from my mom.  She has a couple of friends from school who made a muffin cookbook (Amazon affiliate link) that I refer to when I feel like making muffins but need inspiration. My current favorite muffin recipe, though, is cobbled together from my experiences making these waffles, these muffins, and always having buttermilk on hand. I love these muffins because they are whole grain, not too sweet, but have a little hit of chocolate that makes the kids think it's a treat. I've played with many iterations of this muffin base, using soaked oatmeal, but this recipe is the one that started it all. For Muffin Monday today, I've gone back to the beginning.

I know lately it seems that the switch has been flipped to All Things Pumpkin, and I am not usually one to jump on bandwagons, but my reason for using pumpkin is simple. I've got a lot of volunteer pumpkins on hand this Fall.  The garden has been crazy productive, thanks to the squirrels planting pumpkin seeds everywhere and my inability to deny food the right to grow wherever it shows up. Check here for how to Process a Pile of Pumpkins (and the mystery winterish squash in the background).

Is your garden providing Copious Curcubita, too? Would you like more recipes using pumpkins? Check out my Pumpkin Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

I'm sharing more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. If you like a good peek behind the scenes like I do, follow me on Instagram. Need a good read? I'm sharing articles of interest on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

NOTE: This recipe requires oats to be soaked in buttermilk for at least an hour. I've used rolled oats and steel cut oats with great success (haven't tried quick oats). It's easy to prep a bunch of containers of oats and buttermilk and store them in your fridge for impromptu muffin-making. I've made an oat-buttermilk mixture on Sunday night and used it as late as Friday morning without ill effects, but I'd usually stick with 2-3 days in advance. I prefer a wide mouth pint size canning jar (not shown) to store my soaking oats in the fridge.

Whole Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
By Kirsten Madaus

Recipe for whole grain pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, using buttermilk-soaked oats combined with pumpkin puree and a handful of chocolate chips for flair. These less-sugar muffins are sweet yet wholesome.

Prep time: 01:10
Cook time: 00:18
Total time: 01:33

Yield: 12 regular or 36 mini muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk (I'm sure kefir would also work great)
1 cup (90 grams) rolled oats (I use old fashioned)
1 cup (240 ml) cooked pumpkin (double the recipe if you're using a can of pumpkin)
1 egg
¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
¼ cup brown sugar
1 cup (125 grams) whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup chocolate chips (I usually use mini chips, but any size will do)

Instructions:

See Note above. Combine the first 3 ingredients in a large bowl on the counter for at least 1 hour.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spray a regular 12 well muffin pan with nonstick spray, or use paper or foil liners.

Add the egg, brown sugar, and vegetable oil to the bowl. Mix well.

Add in the rest of the ingredients dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

Stir in the chocolate chips. I like to use a large scoop** to fill the muffin pan, but spooning out 12 equal portions also works.

Bake 18 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then flip onto a cooling rack to finish. These freeze well.

**My scoop holds 3 Tablespoons (1½ ounces) by volume, though the muffin batter is mounded in the scoop so I'm pretty sure I'm putting a good 3 ½ to 4 Tablespoons into each muffin well. The muffin wells in my regular muffin pans each hold 3 ounces by volume.

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

• Appalachian Pawpaw Muffinsfrom Palatable Pastime
• Apple Oatmeal Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pineapple Coconut Banana Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Sourdough Date Nut Cranberry Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Sweet Pineapple Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Whole Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts