Oatmeal Muffins
A rich, crumble-topped oatmeal muffin recipe made with an oatmeal and yogurt base. Golden-topped, wholesome, and a fantastic pocket treat.
You want to know what makes these oatmeal muffins next level? They have a big crumble top. It’s a game changer. Beyond that, the rolled oats in the rich batter make them quite substantial — a distant cousin to typical cake muffins. They're a bit custard-y when hot, and not-at-all when cooled. Craggy and golden-topped, let’s talk through the details!
Muffin Meets Crumble
The idea was to put a crumble top on a great, decadent, oatmeal muffin. I used the crumble from the Tutti-Frutti Crumble recipe in Super Natural Every Day. The muffins themselves don't come across as particularly sweet, but you get a nice amount of sweetness from the topping. Overall, I would say, the muffins might classify as lightly-sweetened. If you have more of a sweet tooth, you can certainly add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup to the wet ingredients. Or, even better, stir in some chopped, sweet fruit.
How To Make Oatmeal Muffins
There's nothing particularly tricky about making these muffins, but there are two main components. The crumble and then the oatmeal muffin batter. You'll be melting butter for both.
While the crumble is chilling in the freezer, combine the wet and dry muffin batter ingredients. Stirring just enough to bring it all together.
Transfer the muffin batter to muffin tins and top with crumble pieces.
Next, bake until golden and puffy. Remove from the oven, and now (the most important thing) pop them out of the pan as soon as you can after baking. Let them cool outside the pan on a baking rack. In the pan they steam, and it will impact the texture of the muffins. And not in a good way.
Oatmeal Muffins: Variations
I kept the recipe here straight forward - rolled oats, yogurt, etc. That said, you can take them in a thousand directions with different spice combinations, or citrus zest, or add-ins like seeds, or berries, or dried fruit.
- Apple Season: Kelly notes, “Made these the other day and added 2 grated apples and some cinnamon. WOW – so yummy! My new favourite muffins.”
- Coconut & Sunflower Seeds: LadyM says, “Awesome… I added some unsalted sunflower seeds, coconut, and raisins. I also used my silicone mini muffin pan and they turned out incredible, just a little bit of crusting around the edges. “
- Strawberry Magic: Sara mentions, “I didn’t have any plain yogurt (and where I live generally only sells sweetened plain yogurt) so instead I cut the sugar in half and used strawberry yogurt. Came out amazing and tasting lightly of strawberry!”
More Muffin Recipes
- Seeded Pumpkin & Feta Muffins
- Cottage Cheese Muffins
- Buttermilk Berry Muffins
- Baked Oatmeal Cups
- Nine great muffin recipes
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Oatmeal Muffins
A couple things before you get started. Don't use instant oats here, go for rolled oats. Also, this recipe yields a slightly awkward 1 1/2 dozen muffins. Bake all at once, or bake a one-dozen pan batch, and the remaining in a mini muffin pan, adjusting the timing to less for the smaller muffins. And yes, if you can't find whole wheat pastry flour, you can substitute unbleached all-purpose flour.
- scant 3/4 cup / 3 oz / 85 g whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup / 1.5 oz / 45 g old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g natural cane or brown sugar
- scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1/3 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3/4 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g unbleached all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 7/8 cup / 7 oz / 200 g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan
- 1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g natural cane or brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups / 12 oz / 350 ml plain yogurt
- 2 large eggs, whisked
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Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. Butter one or two muffin pans generously. I don’t use paper liners here, but if you’re nervous about sticking, you certainly can. Place oven racks in top third of oven.
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Get your crumble topping for your muffins started first. Use a fork to combine the flour, oats, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter. Divide the mixture into three portions, and use your hands to form into three flat-ish patties. Place the patties in a bowl in the freezer for about ten minutes.
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Now, onto the muffin batter. In a medium bowl combine the oats, flours, baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside.
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Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Whisk in the yogurt, and then the eggs. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir just until combined. Do your best to avoid over mixing.
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Pour the batter into the muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Pull the crumble from the freezer and break it up into small and medium pieces. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with crumble, place the muffins in the oven and bake 30 - 35 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool just a minute or so, then turn out onto a cooling rack - important!
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen muffins.
Related Recipes
Seeded Pumpkin and Feta Muffins
Savory muffins packed with spinach, feta and Parmesan cheeses, black pepper, mustard, and sunflower seeds. Adapted from a recipe in a lovely little self-published Australian cookbook, Martha Goes Green.
Cottage Cheese Muffins
Golden, puffy cottage cheese muffins are high in protein, filling, and endlessly adaptable. If you love a savory baked situation, these are for you.
Buttermilk Berry Muffins
Beautiful buttermilk muffins - berry-streaked with sugar-sparkled tops, big flavor, and buttermilk-tender texture.
Baked Oatmeal Cups
Baked oatmeal cups are the perfect on-the-go breakfast staple. These are made with oats, bananas, and lots of berries, then baked into golden deliciousness.
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Comments
I always love a good crumble topping! These muffins sound fabulous Heidi. Definitely going to be making these for my next brunch. Do you think it would affect the batter consistancy if I added some chopped fruit (like banana or berries) or do you think a dried fruit would work better ?
That texture looks unbelievable!
Love the photo! I just want to reach into the frame and eat it. I make a homemade energy bar with yogurt and oats and my kids love it.
I can't wait to make these, and so excited to see that they use yogurt. I've started making my own and want to use it for everything at this point! As for the crumble, great to know it can be frozen. I dont' think I can make a muffin without crumble these days either!
Baked up a batch of these tonight.....thought it would be yummy to stir in the end of a batch of rhubarb compote I had. Sadly, after 50 mins of baking they came out really wet and disappointing. So moral of the story-stick to the recipe!
I can't wait to try these out!
Heidi - what can I use instead of whole wheat pastry flour? I have "regular" whole wheat flour - but wasn't sure if it needed to be the pastry kind... just trying to use what I have on hand. :) HS: Hi Eleanor - I think I'd do a blend of 50% all-purpose flour + 50% whole wheat flour for the first attempt, and then if you like them, amp up the WW in later batches. I worry that 100% whole wheat flour might be too heavy/dense, but I could be wrong!
I made these tonight for my parents and sister and they were absolutely delicious! They loved them. I added blueberries as well and they were certainly some of the best muffins I've ever tasted. Thank you so much for the recipe, and good luck with your move!
Did you use non-, low- or full-fat yogurt? I typically have non-fat Fage yogurt on hand. Would this work? HS: I used full-fat yogurt, but I'm sure low-fat or low-fat Greek would work well. I think I'd skip on non-fat...
Has anyone made these muffins using olive or grapeseed oil - or even applesauce in place of the butter? I try not to use butter due to cholesterol issues. The muffins look yummy.
Wonderful, wholesome muffins. The topping sounds especially delicious.
Bookmarked. :)
What a serendipitous recipe - I was literally just looking for something to replace my regular muffin recipe as I'm tiring of it! Love that you use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole grain flour - I always modify recipes to do the same! Just found your site the other day and love it, thank you so much for sharing. Best wishes from British Columbia, Canada!
those look great - i'm always looking for a way to use oats which for some reason seem to be very "grounding" for me. thoughts on baking in a bread pan rather than as muffins since it makes a non-standard amount??? best of luck w/ the move. HS: I like the idea - I'm a little worried about the reality though. There is something about the standard muffin size, or smaller, that works well with this batter. I'm a littler worried about what might happen to the center of a loaf version. Report back if you give it a try - I'd love to know!
loved the oatmeal muffins exactly as they are! will try a few add-ins on my next baking spree! best of luck with your move and new home. love the idea of new adventures and memories to make a new abode more intimate and 'ours'! enjoy it!
I have never cooked with soy yogurt - do you think that something that would work in these? I know you replied to someone saying Greek would probably work, but soy yogurt is much runnier. Thanks! These look delicious!! HS: Hi Lynsey - Hmm. I'm not sure. I'm assuming you're looking for a non-dairy option? Any one else have ideas on this front? I'm not the biggest fan of the flavor of most "soy-dairy" products - milk, yogurt, etc.
I think that my little 12 cup mini muffin tray would be perfect for the left over batter after you fill the normal size muffin tray.... That is perfect for my little guys - they love mini muffins!!!
holy cow. just this morning I was thinking that I need a recipe for oatmeal (porridge) muffins and BAM here it is. wow. I will make them tomorrow morning.
Another winning recipe with ingredients I have on hand, now I hope it's permissible to add a couple more items, say pecans, dried cherries, coconut and candied ginger. I know... I just can't leave any recipe alone ;-)
Making these tonight! I happen to own a 12-cup muffin tin and a 6-cup muffin tin, so a batch of 1.5 dozen is perfect for me. This may be the only recipe I've ever found that actually matches my odd muffin tin collection.