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
the photo looks so "gourmande" !
hi heidi from an SF ex-pat! do you think that honey would alter the texture instead of the sugar in the muffin? i'm trying to keep refined sugar from my toddler's diet - - i might try it and see how it goes. i'd keep it for the crumble and do some with, some without. i'm down in new zealand and often i find my 'substitutions' end in failure! (flour is different as well - no ww pastry to be found only "wholemeal" which seems refined somehow). HS: HI Sara - I worry that a honey substitute here would definitely require some trial & error, not a straight swap and an adjustment of baking temp.
Oooh, I may just have to try these! I love a good oatmeal muffin with some fresh homemade butter (ala cream in a baby food jar being shaken to oblivion) in the morning. Now to find a decent chai mix to pair it with! ;)
I love these muffins! Baked goods that can go from sweet to savory really appeal to me.
love the idea oatmeal muffins. I have been making oatmeal every morning for my fiance and have been wanting to do something different. And these muffins are perfect! Thanks
Can anyone tell me whether wheat pastry flour can be substituted with just plain whole wheat flour. I can't find pastry flour! Thanks
Can we use greek yogurt?
I ran home from work and IMMEDIATELY made these. They are delicious....mostly because they taste like butter. I almost couldn't do it, 1-1/3 cup of butter.....that is quite a bit. But I thought: What the heck! I want those now! I put in about 2 tbsp. of honey because I like my muffins a little sweet, but they definitely didn't need it. I get that I don't need to use all of the crumble, but is there any way to reduce the 7/8 cup of butter in the muffin batter? I feel like with egg and yogurt you maybe wouldn't need so much?
My daughter makes a variation of these; she adds chopped apple into the mix. It's delish!
These look yummy and I want to make them today. I was wondering if I could make it completely out of TJ's whole wheat unbleached flour, without changing the measurements. So that would be 200g of whole wheat flour... thoughts? HS: Hi Suki - try 100g apf + 100g wwf for starters, and then up the percentage of ww in each successive batch until they are where you like them :)
Those look absolutely amazing !! Im gonna make a batch this weekend !
These look A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! perfect for my on-the-train breakfast yummy
Hi... I need your advice on what type of biscuit is more marketable if I want to do it in a big scale and it must be a halal products. Best Regards
These look great! I made the crumble before and will have to make some up for these. Good luck on the move!
well! i'm home sick on the couch, wretchedly poking around the interwebs...and these muffins made me perk right up. first because i realized your muffin pan is a cousin of the ovenex cookie sheets i inherited from my grandmother (and which i love, because they give a secret patterny bottom to cookies), and then because dang, those muffins look gooood. thx! :) HS: Get well soon Heather.
Looks like a great, basic muffin recipe, and I love baking with yogurt. I would like to top them with the sugared sunflower seeds (can't remember exactly what you called them) from your latest book. Good luck with the move! HS: Thanks Rachel - you mean the Muscovado seeds, right? Great call. Actually, I bet those would be great with some sort of sugar crust on the Millet Muffins too....
Beautiful. I've long lamented how sweet muffins tend to be, but that's the beauty of making them at home. These look delicious.
Yes, thank you! I'm always on the lookout for great muffin recipes. And oatmeal, to boot. Yay for healthy fiber.
these look phenomenal. i too love yogurt in muffins - i'm all about that sweet tang and creamy consistency. good luck with the move! finding a new oven is a big deal.
Oh shoot! Just re-read and saw that you reccommend using berries or dried fruit! questioned already answered. I like your style ;)