Apple Oatmeal and Goat Cheese Muffins: #MuffinMonday Recipe
Apple Oatmeal and Goat Cheese Muffins with browned butter and a streusel top are fun, 100% whole grain and delicious! Keep reading to hear all about some awesome new photography props and otherwise scroll down for the recipe and see what the other fabulous members of #MuffinMonday made!
Guys!!!!! I am so excited!!!! I feel funny even talking about it, like whatever props I use for my food photography should be kept a careful secret, such that my readers just believe I have 8 billion different tables to photograph my food on, but whatever, I am sharing because I am excited! So a few years back, I decided to really step up my game photography wise. I found a good spot in the house (by a French door for lots of natural light), bought a folding table to live nearby as well as a tripod, and eventually invested in some vinyl “wood” tabletops. Now I am not knocking on the vinyl. First, often it is all a blogger can afford. Second, while it does look fake, I personally believe it only looks fake to those who study it. I have tons of family and friends “in real life” who were convinced I had purchased new tables–and excited to see them! But over time the fact that *I* could tell they were fake started to get to me. So I started investigating real wood photography props (essentially large slabs of wood, varnished or painted or distressed in some way). Great idea but holy moly the cost! So I asked my parents if they could help me purchase the wood for my birthday–sure, but when my mom heard the cost she nearly fell over laughing in disbelief.
You see my mom is an artist. She came to it late in life and will no doubt feel funny that I have called her such, but she is. Her paintings hang on my walls, and not just because I am trying to make her feel good about an empty nest hobby. I love her paintings and have asked for one more than once. All of the kids in my family–and their spouses!–have, as a matter of fact. Each of us likes different things. With the exception of a mixed media very abstract painting of a blizzard that hangs in my bedroom, most of what I like are her representational yet stylized animal paintings. She volunteers at the Columbus Zoo and does a fantastic job with animals. On the opposite end of the spectrum, my sister in law Katie likes her more abstract paintings–my mom has done a few different interpretations of the Chicago skyline for her. So anyway, after she stopped laughing, my mom said why don’t I just do them for you?
Super squee! She came up with the first set for my birthday last Friday, and I am over the moon at playing with these. I think they are gorgeous on their own! It is funny because she is still perplexed at the cost of the boards commercially available–but I tell you, I could not have done this! It takes skills I don’t have–I am about the least crafty person I know and my hands are completely lousy. Sorry Mom, you will just have to accept that you have talent worth a lot!
You may notice that one one or two muffins in the middle have the paper tulip cups. That is because they take awesome pictures when they are unpeeled, but are otherwise wasteful to my mind. I prefer the fugly (that would be fun but ugly) silicone wrappers, thanks.
OK about these muffins. I adore them. John loves them. But they are not for everyone. If you don’t like goat cheese, these muffins are not suddenly going to persuade you otherwise (that would be Sammy). And Alex, reacting possibly to the introduction of any savory element into her muffins, found them “weird.”
Whatever, kid.
So if you have kids *of that age* (you know what I mean if you have one), maybe they are not the best choice. But if you love goat cheese and apples and have sent the hooligans to the grandparents for the weekend? These are heavenly.
Apple Oatmeal and Goat Cheese Muffins Author: TheSpicedLife Recipe type: muffins Ingredients
For the muffins: 1 cup (140 g) white whole wheat flour 1 cup quick cooking oats (or take 1 heaping cup of rolled oats and blitz in the food processor for a few seconds and then measure) 1 T baking powder ½ t fine sea salt 2 t Ceylon cinnamon ½ t allspice ½ cup browned butter (unsalted), slightly cooled 2 T full fat sour cream ½ cup +2 T 2% milk 1 egg ⅓ cup raw Demerara sugar 1 large apple, peeled, cored and diced 70 g (2.4 oz) soft goat cheese, crumbled, placed in freezer to wait until needed For the topping: ⅓ cup rolled oats ⅓ cup raw Demerara sugar 1 T white whole wheat flour Pinch of fine sea salt 2 T browned butter (unsalted), slightly cooled 60 g (2.15 oz) soft goat cheese, crumbled Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper or silicone liners. Lightly spray the insides of the cups and top of the pan with oil spray and then set aside. Whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a large bowl. Set aside. Brown ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons butter. Remove 2 tablespoons and set aside for use in the topping. Set the remaining ½ cup aside to cool. Whisk together the sour cream, milk and raw sugar. Whisk in the egg. Whisk in the ½ cup browned butter. Fold the liquid mixture into the flour mixture. Fold in the diced apple and then fold in the goat cheese crumbles from the freezer. Now make the topping: In a new bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, salt and oats. Pour the browned butter over this mixture and mix until everything is evenly moistened with butter. Divide the batter between the muffin wells. Then divide the crumbled goat cheese over the tops of the batter. Then divide the oat topping over that--pressing lightly to adhere the oats. Bake 15-18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the biggest muffin comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached (it could also come out smeared in melted goat cheese). Let the baked muffins sit in the pan for 5 minutes, before lifting each one carefully by the edges to sit on a cooling rack. It is hard to resist warm muffins--and these are delicious at either temperature--but they will hold together better once cooled. 3.3.3077
#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page. Unlike my other groups, this one will not have any themes other than ones I might impose on just myself–so expect a smörgåsbord of choices each time! Keep on reading to see what everyone baked for September!
And for those who love collages: