Clean Steel Cut Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

I tried so many new recipes this week!  Thankfully, none of them were failures, but I'm not quite ready to share them with the world!

Sooo I decided instead to share my favorite snack in the whole wide world, aside from Oreos, Clean Steel Cut Oatmeal Raisin Muffins.  It sounds like an exaggeration, but it's true.  These muffins are densely packed with all things whole grain, with a touch of sweetness and warm cinnamon.  I originally found the recipe at Chew Out Loud, but I wasn't 100% pleased with it.  The biggest issue was I found that the blueberries got a little rank in the muffins if I didn't eat them fast enough.  I tried to freeze them, but the blueberries didn't thaw real well.

And then I remembered the most perfect combination in all the land:  Oatmeal and Raisin.

Add to that my desire to "clean up" the recipe a little bit and WA-LAH (sp?)!  A star was born.

Of course, I headed over to Rachel's to teach her about my magic little muffins.

Clean Steel Cut Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

Prep time:  15 minutes
Cook time:  20 minutes
Total time:  35 minutes
Yield:  12-15 muffins

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 TB dry flax meal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/4 cup honey
1 1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 pure maple syrup
1 TB vanilla
1 cup leftover, cooked steel cut oatmeal (I cook a big batch and keep it in my fridge for when I need it!)
1 cup raisins


Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Oil a muffin tin with coconut oil spray.  If you're feeling extra culinary (and you don't forget like I always do), try soaking your raisins in the vanilla for about 15 minutes before adding them to the recipe.  It really plumps up the raisins in the muffins and make them extra flavorful!

Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and honey until well incorporated.  Add the buttermilk, olive oil and maple syrup and whisk again until well combined.  Next add the leftover cooked steel cut oatmeal.  I find that it's usually pretty clumpy and gets stuck in my whisk.  I'm not afraid to dig my hands in their and break up the clumps.  Although, it's not a bad thing to take a bite of a muffin and get a clump of oatmeal :)  Next add your raisin and vanilla mixture.  Finally, combine the wet and dry ingredients together in one bowl.  DO NOT OVER MIX.  I fold slowly from the bottom up until I don't see any flour.

Spoon batter into the muffin tin.  I like to make the batter just even with the top of the muffin tin.  Play it by ear depending on how many muffins you want.

I freeze these bad boys to ensure long-lasting freshness.  It's so easy to just pop one out in the morning and either heat it up in the microwave for a few second, or throw it in my lunchbox, where it defrosts naturally and is ready by the afternoon.  

I totally see myself trying to turn this into some kind of pumpkin miracle, come next fall!