Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

My family doesn't just love these things, they literally DEVOUR them.  I think I will have to start making a batch and a half soon!   These are the muffins I referred to in my post on the oat roller mill.  If you were not so enamored by that post, let me just say that an accumulation of stress and sleep deprivation affects my speech filter and editing skills (thank you baby #4!).  So, after several weeks of sleep training said baby, hopefully this post will sit a little sweeter.  Here is the recipe with my baking notes included. Enjoy!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
from the Jan/Feb 2007 Cooking Light Magazine

1 2/3   cups rolled oats
2/3     cup all-purpose flour (I use whole wheat flour)
1/2      cup whole wheat flour (I use another flour like spelt or millet)
3/4     cup packed light brown sugar
2         tsp ground cinnamon
1          tsp baking powder
1          tsp baking soda
3/4     tsp salt
1 1/2    cups buttermilk (I sometimes use heavy whipping cream 'soured' with
           lemon juice)
1/4      cup canola oil (I use coconut oil)
2         tsp grated lemon rind (I use dehydrated lemon rind from the bulk
           herbs section at our local Vitamin Cottage)
2         large eggs, lightly beaten
2         cups frozen blueberries
2         Tbsp all-purposed flour
2         Tbsp granulated sugar

1.     Preheat oven to 400°.

2.     Place oats in a food processor; pulse 5 or 6 times until oats resemble
        coarse meal. Place in a large bowl.

3.     Lightly spoon 2/3 cup all-purpose flour and wheat flour into dry
        measuring cups; level with a knife.  Add flours and next 5 ingredients to
        oats in bowl; stir well with a whisk.  Make a well in center of mixture.

4.     Combine buttermilk, oil, rind, and eggs in a small bowl; stir well with a
        whisk.  Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

5.     Toss berries with 2 Tbsp flour and gently fold into batter.

6.     Spoon batter into 16 muffin cups lined with paper liners; sprinkle with 2
        Tbsp granulated sugar.  Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until muffins
        spring back when touched lightly in center.  Remove from pans
        immediately. Place on a wire rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature. 

I should clarify that in addition to the changes I noted above in the ingredient listing, I also don't strictly follow all the directions above.  If I am using my oat roller mill, I actually use the flour setting (since it is a really course flour) and then I can skip pulsing them in the food processor.  Then I just throw all the ingredients together in a bowl, stir it until just combined, and put the batter into 24 muffin cups.  I don't add any sugar to the top of the muffins.  Most of the time, I also skip flouring the blueberries and just let my kids put a couple on the top of each muffin and poke them in.  Even with all those changes, I have to stay they are still DELICIOUS!!

Making Rolled Oats from Oat Groats

Oats coming through the Marga Marcato Roller Mill

I was wanting to find a way to truly make homemade rolled oats, as in from my 25# supply of oat groats I have in the pantry.  You can't use a regular mill / wheat grinder to make rolled oats.  I have heard that you can possibly put them in a plastic bag and take a rolling pin to them, but hadn't tried it, and was dubious about the amount of time that would have to be invested and what the results would be.  I guess I should have at least tried it, since that would have been free.  I have also heard that it is best to have the oats lightly steamed when rolling them, instead of scalding all the nutrients out of them to make processed rolled oats.

I have a recipe for oatmeal muffins that I lovingly claimed from Cooking Light several years ago. I am not a big fan of oatmeal, so muffins is one of the few ways I eat oats and these muffins are AWESOME. My husband loves them dearly, ("devours" would be the appropriate term), but he jokingly calls them 'roto-rooter muffins', and unfortunately the name has kind of stuck. Let's just say they are high in fiber! :0)

The idea of rolling our own cereal flakes and making our own cereal intrigued me (the question of sweetening that cereal has not been fully thought out, lol!).  One of the companies had a cereal with rice flakes, wheat flakes, dried strawberries, and dried blueberries that we thought was super yummy.  However, aside from the fact that it had 12 grams of whole grains but only 3 grams of fiber (exactly how much of that whole grain is still whole or considered a grain by that point?), it also had quite a bit of sugar (especially for a "healthy" whole grain cereal!).  Thus, I was on the prowl to find a mill that would be able to make rolled outs and cereal flakes.  I am not sure where I first saw it / heard of it, but I found the Marcato Marga Roller Mill.  My husband suprised me with one for Christmas :0) I felt a little bad because of the price, but considering its long term use, considered it more an investment and decided to just be happy about it and enjoy it!











There are 3 settings, one for flour, one for course ground grains (kind of like cracked wheat maybe?) and then one for rolled oats.  The instructions indicate that you can roll the items back through a second time to make a finer grind, but getting the oat flour to go back through a second time proved difficult, so I would probably stick with a flour grinder if you are wanting flour.  The bottom tray is removable, and plastic, yet to be proven, however in a family with 4 small children, plastic is not ideal, so we will see how long it lasts.  The top hopper is also plastic but does not seem to be easily removed, if at all. 

Different outcomes for setting '#2'

The first setting was a coarse flour.  The second setting had three different settings (within the second setting) to adjust for a coarser or finer product (see picture at left). The third setting was the one for rolled oats.  They were not a uniform shape like you might expect from a canister of Quaker Quick Oats; there were lots of shapes and sizes, and "roller" marks where you could see how they went through the roller.

The bowls in the picture above were to highlight the differences coming through the roller mill:  From left to right:  Quaker Quick Rolled Oats, Marcato Marga Roller Mill rolled oats (setting 3), rolled / cracked oats (setting 2), oat flour (setting 1).  The Quaker rolled oats and homemade rolled oats looked pretty similar! My kids like to eat oats and peanut butter together, and sometimes just plain oats.  My son kept eating the oats out of the bowls as fast as I could roll them.  I had to refill one of them twice - I guess there are worse things to happen, and worse things for him to snack on, lol! He did tell me "Yesterday I hated oats, but today I LOVE oats!" Kids - so funny!

Compared to a hand wheat grinder, the oats went through really quickly and easily.  My kids were anxious about who was going to get the first turn and whose turn would be the longest, and they all had fun trying it out!

The real test was to see how they would turn out in our favorite blueberry oatmeal muffins recipe.
Answer:  Delicious!!!!

I guess I will be looking for a cereal recipe next, as well as some additional uses for the roller mill :0)

What yummy recipes do you have using oat groats or rolled oats?