Kitchen Jam

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As a low-carber, I don’t eat much bread. But I do love muffins (bread portion control, or cake in drag – whatever you pick!) I have several muffin recipes in my collection. So when my friend Dottie asked me to make up a batch of muffins to sell at the Doggone Good Day Pet Expo, I went straight for my Oatmeal-Blueberry Muffins. The recipe sold out and the muffins were pronounced the ‘best blueberry muffins ever!’

The inspiration for this recipe was published in ‘The Food Processor Bible,’ and the original recipe is made entirely in that appliance. I’m ore a wooden-spoon-and-bowl girl, especially for a recipe as simple as muffins. I’ve improvised through several versions in my kitchen. This version evolved a few years ago after I discovered kefir, a lovely liquid-y yogurt-like drink that’s full of probiotics and protein. If you can’t get kefir, you can also use plain yogurt.

Oatmeal-Blueberry Muffins

1 cup unbleached flour
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup oats
1 cup kefir (or plain yogurt)
1 tbsp. vinegar, or raspberry vinegar
1 egg
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup oil *
1 cup blueberries *

• Preheat the oven to 400F. Toss fresh blueberries with a tablespoon of the flour and set aside. If you’re using frozen blueberries, keep them frozen until you need them to prevent bleeding into the batter.
• Put the oats into the bowl of the food processor and pulse a few times until they’re coarsely ground. Add the kefir to the ground rolled oats, stir and let the mixture set for a few minutes.
• While the oats soak in the kefir, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, soda and cinnamon. Set aside.
• Into the oats and kefir, stir the vinegar, egg, oil, and brown sugar.
• Stir in the dry ingredients, just until blended (a few lumps are ok.) Gently stir in the blueberries just until combined.
• Spoon into muffin tins, filling about 4/5ths full so that muffins have nice rounded tops. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.
* I use Light Extra Virgin Olive Oil (it’s light in color and taste, not in calories. You could also use melted butter or melted extra virgin unrefined coconut oil – whatever fat you choose to add, it needs to be liquid.

You can use any type of berries, switch out berries for nuts (or add nuts in addition to berries, use dried fruit, or substitute chocolate or other flavored chips to these basic oatmeal muffins.