Maple syrup and oat breakfast muffins

I have described these as breakfast muffins, notwithstanding that today I made them at teatime and am eating, as I type, a couple with jam in place of dinner (Adam’s out and I can’t be bothered cooking a proper dinner tonight). Despite this, I still put them in the breakfast bracket as they are quite plain, not in a bad way, just that they call for a generous spreading of butter and some jam on top, in a manner that is most accustomed to at breakfast time. They also contain porridge oats, which is very breakfasty – for obvious reasons. 

Plus, I could easily be justified in calling them healthy muffins, which I think further qualifies them as belonging in the breakfast category: they are made with wholemeal flour and they don’t contain sugar (with the maple syrup providing the sweetness). They do however have melted butter in them so they’re not entirely virtuous… Anyway, they are very tasty, especially eaten fresh from the oven. And extremely easy to make as well. 

Just a final note to say you could replace the maple syrup with honey and I think you’d get a similar result. Same with buttermilk – if you can’t get it (though nowadays it is normally stocked in all supermarkets) use plain yoghurt. 

Why not add a handful of berries or 1 ripe, mashed banana for a fruity injection too?

Makes: about 10 (depending on how much you fill your muffin tin!)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients: 
280g wholemeal flour
60g porridge oats
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
225g buttermilk (or yoghurt)
2 eggs, beaten 
120g butter
175g maple syrup 

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 180C. 
2. Whisk all your wet ingredients together: beaten eggs, maple syrup, buttermilk, and melted butter. 
3. Then mix your dry: flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, and oats. 
4. Now whisk your wet into your dry. 
5. Pour the batter into the holes of greased muffin tin – don’t totally fill each hole, just do them about 80% full, or 90% if you like a billowing, over the top style! Bake for 20-25 minutes. 
6. For my second batch (my muffin tin only fits 6 at a time), I sprinkled them with brown sugar and they came out really well. Best enjoyed straight from oven with butter and jam. And a cup of tea. Obviously!