Apple Oatmeal Muffins, A Whole Grain Muffin #MuffinMonday

Chunks of apples mixed with buttermilk-soaked oats in a whole wheat muffin, topped with streusel for a sweet and wholesome treat.

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I realized that my muffin recipes, over on the drop down sidebar, are lacking in basic apple muffins. I've got sugar-less Apple Cider Muffins. I've got savory Cheddar Apple Multigrain Muffins. I've got 'throw everything in there' Cranberry Apple Pecan Tangerine Mini Muffins. I didn't have a basic apple muffin recipe. Until today. For my inaugural recipe with the #MuffinMonday crew [thanks for having me] I thought I'd remedy the deficiency.

This muffin has a streusel topping which is fancier than my typical 'feed the kids muffins for breakfast or a snack' muffin although I did keep the sugar inside at my usual amount. I made them for a morning coffee that I ended up missing because my visiting folks arrived at the same time. I did manage to snag a picture before I dropped them off, in true food blogger fashion. I even had enough batter to bake some regular-sized muffins to greet my folks.

NOTE:  The base of these muffins is my standard Soaked Oatmeal Muffin base. You can start these an hour before baking by combining oats and buttermilk in a bowl on the counter, or you could plan ahead [boy I wish I were the plan ahead type] and fill a bunch of wide mouth pint canning jars with a cup of oats and a cup of buttermilk. Screw on a plastic storage cap [Amazon affiliate link] and store in your fridge for up to a week for soaked oat muffins in a jiffy. (Shown are not wide mouth pint jars, they were all full of salsa.)

I used a blend of apples in these muffins--Gala and one other from the farmer's market that wasn't labelled--and I recommend any eating apple (i.e., not a cooking apple) for these. Chop them into small pieces, but do leave the peels on--they provide a pretty color.

As I was serving unknown guests at the morning coffee, I left out nuts. I think some chopped pecans would be an excellent addition to the streusel topping if nuts are not an issue.

For more recipes using up the seasonal abundance that is my fridge and spilling over onto the kitchen counter during apple season, please see my Apple Recipes Collection. This is part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks eating seasonally like we do. I've got a fruit board on Pinterest for ideas from around the web. Want to know how to use this blog? Click here.

Apple Oatmeal Muffins, A Whole Grain Muffin

See NOTE above about starting the oats at least an hour and up to several days before you're ready to bake.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats (+ 2 Tablespoons for later)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup oil
• ¼ cup brown sugar (+ 2 Tablespoons for later)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup vanilla yogurt (any style you got, baby)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (+2 Tablespoons for later)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt (+⅛ teaspoon later)
• 1+½ cups chopped apple
• 2 Tablespoons softened butter
• optional--2 Tablespoons chopped pecans

Instructions

1. About an hour before you're ready to bake, combine 1 cup rolled oats and 1 cup buttermilk in a large bowl on the counter. 
2. After they have soaked for at least an hour, add in the egg, oil, ¼ cup brown sugar, vanilla and yogurt. Whisk until well blended, then toss that whisk in the sink as you're done with it. 
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 24 well mini muffin pan or 12 well regular muffin pan with oil spray or line with paper liners.
4. Dump the 1 cup whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt on top. Stir gently once or twice, then dump the apples into the bowl and stir them into the batter until the batter is just combined. 
5. Scoop [I use a cookie scoop for mini muffins, a 3 ounce scoop for regular muffins] into prepared pan. You'll have enough for about 40 mini muffins or 12 regular muffins.
6. In a small bowl, make the streusel topping by combining the remaining rolled oats, brown sugar, whole wheat flour, salt and butter (and optional pecans) until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. I use my fingers, then transfer about ¼ teaspoon streusel topping to each mini muffin and ½ teaspoon topping to each regular muffin. Double all the amounts if you prefer, but any kind of streusel is pretty high falutin' to me so I kept it scant.
7. Bake for 12 minutes (mini muffin size) or 15 minutes (regular muffin size). Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool on a rack.

Behind the scenes of my daughter's homework station/my photo studio.

#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.

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