Maple Oatmeal Muffins

The holidays didn't really slow down my efforts at "healthy baking", but they did put a big crimp in my ability to experiment with new recipes. Every year, I make peanut butter cookies for my husband's work associates and when I say that, I mean that I make hundreds of cookies as he likes to give quite a few of his compatriots 5 cookies each. With all of that baking, I fell off of the regular posting bandwagon for this blog. Hopefully, I'll have the time to play with more recipes again.

I'm starting with a favored variation on my basic oatmeal muffin. It gives you the flavor of maple without the sugar or calories. It's light and delicious and goes great with a cup of tea or a mug of coffee for breakfast. Though I garnished these with half a walnut, the nutrition information is for muffins made without the garnish. If you add a half walnut, you'll need to add about 13 calories to the total for each muffin.

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

3/4 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
1 tsp. maple extract (I use McCormick)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder

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. Grind the oats in a food processor until relatively finely ground. 
4. Put the oats in a large bowl and add applesauce, egg, milk and vinegar, salt, Splenda, maple extract, and vanilla. Stir until well mixed.
5. Sprinkle the whole wheat flour onto the oat mixture and gently stir to just moisten. Allow to rest for about 10-20 minutes.
6. Add the baking powder and stir just until well mixed. Don't overwork the flour or the muffins will be tough.
7. Spoon into the prepared tins and bake at 190 degrees for 35 minutes.
8. Allow to cool for 15-30 minutes and run a butter knife around the edges of the tin to loosen the muffins. Gently tap the bottom if they stick.  

 Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator:

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal

One of the great things about Costco is that you can buy huge bags of frozen unsweetened blueberries for a low price. The bad thing about this is that it takes quite awhile to get through a bag. Fortunately, blueberries pair well with a variety of baked goods, and one of my favorite presentations is this blueberry baked oatmeal. These bars smells heavenly and are a tasty snack or breakfast with a low calorie count.

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal (sugar-free, whole grain, low-fat):

1 medium egg
1/2 C. unsweetened applesauce
1/4 C. skim milk
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 C. granular Splenda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 C. rolled oats
3 tbsp. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 C. frozen unsweetened blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C.  
2. Grease and flour a loaf pan or spray with cooking spray. 
3. Whisk the egg, applesauce, milk, Splenda, vegetable oil, salt, and lemon juice together until thoroughly mixed. 
4. Add the oats, sprinkle the flour and baking powder on top and mix with a spoon until the flour and baking powder are mixed in and the oats are thoroughly moistened. 
5. Stir in the frozen blueberries. 
6. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until set (check with a toothpick or tester). 
7. Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes, remove from the loaf pan and allow to cool completely before cutting. 

Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator:

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake Bars

I have found that working with chocolate without sugar and much fat really is quite a challenge because it is hard to get the flavor to be strong without those components. If you have ever wondered why coffee and cinnamon are in a lot of recipes with chocolate, it is because they enhance the intensity of the chocolate flavor without really coming across strongly as independent flavors. While you can skip the coffee in these recipes, it will make for a more anemic tasting result. Even if you hate coffee, it's good to use them in baking chocolate sweets in many cases.

I wanted to make a chocolate baked oatmeal, but I thought it might work better if it were more "cake-like" and less crumbly than my usual baked oatmeal. The result was a delicate, surprisingly light and soft cake bar which was (still) a bit crumbly, but generally held together well. I wouldn't recommend eating it when you're wearing a white shirt.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake Bars (sugar-free, reduced fat, whole grain):

1 medium egg
1/2 cup skim milk
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 tbsp. espresso or very strong coffee
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup Splenda granular
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (regular, not quick cooking), divided into half
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C.
2. Spray a 11" x 7"  pan with cooking spray (I used metal non-stick).
3. Whisk the egg, milk, oil, applesauce, coffee, and vanilla until smoothly blended. 
4. Add the vanilla, cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt, and Splenda and whisk well. 
5. Put 3/4 cup of oatmeal into a small bowl food processor and process until ground as finely as possible. 
6. Add the ground oats, remaining 3/4 cup of whole oatmeal, whole wheat flour, and baking powder to the mixture and stir until evenly mixed.
7. Spread the mixture into the pan and bake for 20 minutes. Do not overbake! A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with moist crumbs, not clean.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature and cut into squares.

Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator:

16 servings:

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. 

"Pumpkin Pie" Breakfast Cake

A lot of people adore oatmeal and enjoy having it for breakfast every morning. Of course, a lot of people put butter, brown sugar, and often fruit in their oatmeal. You can make anything taste great provided that you stir in enough goodies to augment it.

Personally, I'm not a fan of oatmeal for breakfast, except when it's folded into baked goods. This recipe yields a cake which tastes like pumpkin pie and offers it up in a tender, slightly crumbly, moist cake. It's a treat fresh and warm out of the oven, but I also individually wrap and freeze them for later consumption. They make a great breakfast or healthy snack.

"Pumpkin Pie" Breakfast Cake (sugar-free, whole-wheat, low-fat)

1 small egg
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup skim milk
1 tbsp. Canola oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (canned is okay)
1/2 cup Splenda granular
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 1/2 cups plain oatmeal (not instant)
3 tbsp. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. (175 degrees C.).
2. Grease and flour a loaf pan.
3. Whisk the egg, applesauce, milk, oil, vanilla, pumpkin puree, Splenda, salt, and all spices.
4. Sprinkle the oatmeal over the liquid. 
5. Sprinkle the flour and baking powder onto the oatmeal.
6. Stir with a wooden spoon until well moistened.
7. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in the pan until it can be handled comfortably (about 30 minutes). Loosen the edges with a spatula and gently remove the cake.
9. Cut into 6 pieces.

Nutrition calculations courtesy of the Sparkrecipes calculator: