Even More Merry Muffins

Muffin-making is kind of my fave. Several days ago I attempted to make, for the second time, a new muffin recipe that I am kind of in love with.  It includes oat flour and pumpkin and plain yogurt and maple syrup.  It's so good.  But when I made this second batch they were very, very wrong. Dense, no rise, horrible.  I wasn't sure why until I tried again for round three a few days later and came to "1 tsp baking soda" in the recipe. Ahhhhh. I had omitted that important little thing.  So this was a redemptive muffin making and, to make the experience even more meaningful for me I put on a podcast with Itzhak Perlman, world renowned violinist, who delighted me with so many gems i had to run to the pad on the fridge and write them down amidst all the baking.  

It was a moving experience, one I will undoubtedly blog about in more detail later, but throughout the interview they'd play snippets of Itzhak playing and I'd alternately shed a tear, and mix an egg. Measure a teaspoon of something, and hold back a sob. Open a can of pumpkin, and shake my head out of pure humility.   Listening to beautiful music is inspiring.  Listening to Itzhak was epiphanic. 

My prep was finished. I sprinkled some cinnamon and a few prayers and put the muffins in the oven.  When they came out I was in a full-on revelatory state of being. I'd already been vigorously writing things down and among them came two personal muffin rules that I hold to as strongly as I've ever held to anything in my life. They are:

Rule #1
If I wait to eat a muffin so that the butter doesn't immediately melt into a muffin-soaked puddle, then I have failed indeed.

Rule #2
Muffins must be eaten immediately and in quick succession.

I'll easily have 3 muffins one right after another. Also, having multi-sized text within a document is everyone's favorite, I know. I just really wanted you to know how important these muffin rules are to me. 

And as my gift to you, I'm going to include this new merry muffin recipe that I love so much, I might have to make them again now that I've been talking about it.  Here you go:

Jen's Merry Muffins
AKA Oat Pumpkin Muffins I Stole Off the Internet and are Now Mine(here's a link to the actual recipe)

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats 
1 tsp. baking soda 
1/2 tsp salt *
1/2 tsp. cinnamon.* More for sprinkling/praying.
1 cup pumpkin puree
6 oz. plain Greek yogurt
1/2 c. real maple syrup
2 eggs
chocolate chips (optional)

* the original recipe calls for a "pinch" of both of these ingredients but I never know what that means so 1/2 tsp is my minimum salt requirement in baked goods and seems a good amount for the cinnamon.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In a food processor or blender, pulse the oats for about ten seconds to get them mostly smooth.
3. Mix oat flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon in a small bowl.*
4. Mix wet stuff in a separate larger bowl. Add flour mixture all at once to the wet. Gently but swiftly fold with a spatula until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips if you want them.*
5. Transfer to a greased muffin tin or use baking cups which is a million times better. Bake for 13-15 min.

* The original recipe says to mix ALL of the ingredients in the food processor/blender but I can't bring myself to do that. 1- air pockets. Must retain.  2- i only have a blender and so much batter would get stuck in the blade nethers down below and be a pain to clean out. I like the classic method.

One final important note: Bake the batter right away. If you wait a long time between mixing the batter and baking, the oats will absorb a lot of moisture and the muffin texture will get gummy. I notice the threat of this when I eat the muffins and I actually think that's what makes them good but it's a fine line and speed is key.
Merry muffins!