GingerBabyMama: Oatmeal Streusel Muffins

Hello my lovelies! After what seems like ages I have finally found time to a) bake, b) photograph said baking and c) conjure up a blog post to share with you all. I've told you before how my older daughter refuses to eat many foods, and making lunches for school is getting increasingly difficult. I know that she like banana bread and muffins, so today I tried a new recipe combining two things I know she'll eat - oatmeal and muffins!

Normally when I bake I add copious amounts of chocolate chips to my recipes for added flavor and love. This time, I left them out to allow the muffins to shine for themselves. I'm not gonna lie, I'll likely add 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chips to the recipe next time, but you could just as easily add blueberries, small chunks of apple or any other fruits.

This recipe took a little longer than I originally anticipated it would. It involved actually cooking the oats on the stovetop for a few minutes and then after they cooked grinding them down to nearly a flour-like consistency. I have to say, I'm so glad I took the time for these steps because I think they made all the difference. These muffins were light and absolutely delicious.

Oatmeal Streusel Muffins
Many thanks to FirstLookThenCook for this recipe, it turned out great!!

Ingredients
Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Muffin Base:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
1 3/4 cups milk
2 large eggs, beaten

Instructions:

Topping
In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Drizzle melted butter over mixture and stir to combine; set aside.

Muffins
Preheat oven to 375F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Toss the oats into the melted butter and cook, stirring frequently, until oats turn golden brown and smell of cooking popcorn, 6 to 8 minutes.

At this point I was supposed to pulse the oats in a food processor, but since I don't have one, I just used my regular old blender. It did a great job! Mix the remaining flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to oats and pulse until combined.

In the bowl of your standing mixer with the whisk attachment, combine sugar and 6 tbsp. of melted butter until smooth. Add the milk and eggs and whisk until smooth. Fold half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix the other half of the dry ingredients. At this stage, the mixture was still very liquidy.

The instructions said to set the batter aside for 20 minutes to allow the mixture to thicken and I'm so glad I did, because it filled out nicely in that time.

Scoop batter equally among prepared muffin cups, about 3/4 full. Sprinkle the reserved streusel topping over muffins. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-23 minutes, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking.