Ever since I bought a bag of frozen raspberries and some old-fashioned oats, I've been really wanted to make some healthy, substantive raspberry oat breakfast muffins. Unfortunately, finding a basic recipe that would fit what I wanted has been a little hard to come by. After a lot of searching for a non-banana oat muffin recipe (I wanted to stay away from banana recipes because banana seems to form a key part of the batter that I don't quite know how to alter when omitting them), I finally found this very basic recipe on AllRecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Oatmeal-Muffins/Detail.aspx. I made several alterations to the recipe, and have an idea about how to make them even better — the details follow the picture below.
I made several ingredient changes to the recipe to add more flavor. I added in 1/2 tsp. of vanilla, 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon, 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, and 1 cup of frozen raspberries. I also substituted 3 tbs. of blue agave nectar for the white sugar called for in the recipe to try a more healthy alternative to sugar (my first time baking with agave nectar). Finally, I also altered the recipe by baking the muffins for 15 minutes instead of the called for 20 – 25 minutes.
Although I enjoyed the muffins when they came out of the muffin, there are definitely a few things I would change the next time I make them. First, I would definitely add more agave nectar — probably just another tbs. or so to add more sweetness to the muffins. I still don't want to make the muffins too sweet, but I think adding in one more tsp. would help make them a bit more tasty. Second, I would definitely reduce the oven temperature from the recipe's recommended 425 degrees to a more standard 350 or 375 degrees. The batch I made using the original recipe resulted in really brown bottoms to the muffins even though I reduced the baking time, and I think its just a function of the oven temperature being much too high. Third, I will probably also increase the amount of berries (or some other sweetening agent, perhaps raisins?) to add even more flavor into the recipe while trying to maintain the healthiness of the muffins.
All in all though, it was a good attempt at using my frozen raspberries and oats and I look forward to many more!
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