Happy muffin day!

It's not often that I randomly have this huge desire to make muffins in the morning. (Unlike some people. You know who you are.)


But today I did. I wanted some SERIOUS muffins. Not light, fruity, wannabe cupcake muffins. There's a place for those. I wanted something heartier. Something with a nutty flavor but no nuts. Something that I could spread homemade (but not by me) apple butter on and it still wouldn't be too sweet.

So I took the basic oatmeal muffin recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book and, shall we say, got "creative." (Yes, this is the part where you should be afraid. This just might be scarier than a grocery store surrounded by barbed wire.)


Here's what I threw in carefully measured out and added:

• 1 1/3 c whole wheat flour (if your whole wheat flour isn't as yummy as mine you can cut it with white flour. Or just use white flour if you're into that sort of thing. I won't go hunt you down or anything.)
• 3/4 c oatmeal
• 1/3 c sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 c wheat germ
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 c milk
• 1/4 c cooking oil

After that, it's SMP (Standard Muffin Procedure): Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the egg, milk and oil in one bowl. Mix everything else (a.k.a. dry ingredients) in another bowl, and then dig a large shallow hole in the middle. Dump the milk/egg/oil mixture into your dry ingredient depression. Stir it as little as you can get away with to moisten the dry stuff, then stop! Spoon a little of that lumpy goodness into 12 greased muffin cups or muffin papers, stick it in the oven, and try not to peek for 20 minutes.


(Hey, I had to make sure they were cooking evenly!)

I got them done before the Hubs left for work.

They were delightful with apple butter. And hearty. But, if I were going to make them and NOT put apple butter on them, I might add a little more sugar. And reduce the wheat germ a little. (1/4 c was kind of overkill.)


For this morning, though, I have to say they hit the spot.


*****

Photos by me.