Feta Carrot Oat Muffins

Gluten-free 

Muffins and I have a complicated relationship. I want to like them a lot more than I do. I have really only had a handful of muffins in my life that I really liked; the rest were all mush, too sweet or put me in a small food coma. 

Is it just me or can muffins feel like a brick in your stomach? That does not exactly help me like them.  However, when it comes to biscuits? Those I love. I have never met a biscuit that I did not like. And while they can definitely feel…heavy….there is nothing better than a warm biscuit with butter and honey. 

I can be very obsessive. When I come across something (a baked good for example), I am like a dog with a bone trying to figure out how they do it. I like to think that this makes me like a food detective, but I think it is more determined stubbornness. All of this is getting to me trying to figure out how to make a muffin that is biscuit-like in texture, not super sweet and like a brick in my stomach. 

Oats Totes Magoats 

I cannot hide my love for oats. It might be bordering on an obsession. I eat them every day; I put oat flour in almost every baked good I can and dream of new ways to use oats. Adding oats to these muffins gives them a little bit more bite. They just have a little bit more chew and robustness than a regular muffin, while giving you more fiber too. Added bonus. 

When I tasted this recipe, I did half a batch with regular rolled oats and quick cooking oats. I found that the regular rolled oats kept a little too much a raw oat taste than the quick cooking oats. I liked the fact that the quick cooking oats almost blended into the rest of the muffin. 

Veggies in my Muffin

Now the carrots. I used carrots because they are something I always have in my fridge; something I always eat and like baking with. They have a nice mild sweetness that can play all sweet or go savory. I used one medium sized carrot, coarsely grated. If you want, you can finely grate it (won’t change the texture of the muffin), but I like the biggest pieces of carrot so that I know what I am eating. If you don’t have carrots, try zucchini, but make sure you squeeze the excess water out after grating or you will end up with watery muffins.

Lastly, I used honey as a sweetener simple because I love the taste of honey. However, if you would rather not use honey, just swap it for 1/3 cup cane sugar or brown sugar. 

And now I am done. Try these Muffcuits or Bisffins or whatever you want to call them. They are a great weekend morning breakfast and so easy to make. 

Recipe

1 1/4 cups gluten-free measure-for-measure flour

1 cup gluten-free quick-cooking oats

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1 1/2 tsp black pepper 

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin 

1 tbsp baking powder

1 cup whole milk 

1/4 cup oil 

1/4 cup honey

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated carrots (about 1 medium size, 6in carrot)

3/4 cup crumbled feta 

Preheat oven to 425F and line a standard muffin pan with paper liners (this recipe makes 1 dozen standard size muffins)

Using a box grater, roughly grate the carrot place in a small bowl. Crumble the feta into the same bowl as the carrot and set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, salt, baking powder, rosemary, pepper, cumin and coriander. In a glass 2-cup measuring cup, combine the milk, eggs, oil and honey, whisking to break up the egg yolks and just combine. 

Add the egg-milk mixture to the flour mixture and fold to combine. When the flour is almost completely combined, add the carrots and feta and continue folding until just combined. 

Using a cooking scoop or spoon, fill muffin cup with batter. Don’t fill each completely, only 3/4 of the way full. 

Bake for 17 minutes, the tops will be golden brown and your kitchen will smell heavenly. These are best enjoyed the day of and still warm from the oven. Top with more honey or just some good old fashioned butter.