The past two and a half weeks have been insane. Insanely good, but still insane. We celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary at the end of June by heading to Southern California for ten days of theme parks and island living. It was an amazing trip. More on that later as I’m sure I could spend days telling you about all the amazing things we did! A few days after we returned home, my lovely grandma and aunt came into town for a week. We did just about everything anyone in northern California would do with guests – visited San Francisco, had wine tours in Napa, went shopping, walked around Telegraph in Berkeley, and ate more fresh produce than my guests dreamed could ever exist in one place. It was an amazing, fun-filled time together.
In the midst of all this, I took my computer into the Apple store for repairs and they didn’t return it to me until a week later. A week without a computer, without my blog, without internet, without facebook, without a photo editor… it was torture. Now that my guests are gone and my computer is back, I begin the grueling process of going through *everything* that piled up while my guests and I were too busy having fun. This morning I went through several hundred emails. That’s a start. There’s a pile of bills on my sofa and several hundred photos on my camera card that I’m afraid to even touch.They can wait… I need a break. 
While my aunt and grandma were here, we ate and feasted and gorged ourselves and then ate some more. It was fabulously fun to have an excuse to cook and eat so many amazing foods. I’ll share some of our meals later, but for now, this is a tribute to my Aunt Debbie, whose favorite question while she was here was, “This is amazing! Is this on the blog?” Debbie – you didn’t get to try these because we simply ran out of time to eat another bite, but had you tried them and known that they were healthy (with chocolate!) I guarantee they would have been added to your “favorites” list.
oatmeal chocolate chip muffins
heavily adapted from www.101cookbooks.com
crumble topping*
scant 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
muffins:
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
scant 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1/4 cup agave syrup or honey (I actually might add a bit more next time, but I prefer sweet muffins!)
2 large eggs, whisked
2 large handfuls chocolate chips
*I did not use all of this crumble topping. I put the rest in the freezer for the next batch of muffins!
Preheat oven to 350 with rack set in the middle of the oven. Butter muffin pan generously. Do not use cupcake liners.
To make the crumble: Use a fork to combine the flour, oats, sugar, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the melted butter. Divide the mixture into three portions and use your hands to form the portions into three patties. Place the patties on a plate in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
For the muffins: In a medium bowl, combine the oats, flours, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a medium, microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. Add the sugar and whisk in the yogurt and agave, followed by the eggs. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until it’s almost completely mixed. Add in chocolate chips and stir just until combined. Do not over mix.
Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full. Sprinkle with a few additional chocolate chips if desired. Break off pieces of crumble and add about one tablespoon to each muffin. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out with only a few crumbs attached. Let cool for 5 minutes and then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool almost completely before serving. If you have leftovers, heat them for about 10 seconds in the microwave so that the chocolate chips soften slightly.
5 responses so far ↓
1 LeAnn // Jul 13, 2011 at 1:19 pm
I totally had a hankering to bake something (healthy. ish.) today – this IS IT! Thanks for reminding me about this recipe!
2 Sasha @ The Procrastobaker // Jul 14, 2011 at 2:25 am
oo wonderful! Firstly, congratulations on your anniversary
secondly, this recipe is just great although i fear i would definitely have a difficult time not devouring the entire batch far too fast!
3 AKM // Jul 14, 2011 at 8:46 am
I am thinking these will be delicious, but I am wondering about the bake time–30 to 35 minutes for muffins seems like too much. At what time did you do your first toothpick test…? Thanks!
4 Paula // Jul 14, 2011 at 9:05 am
@AKM – I thought it was a long time, too, but believe me… it took every minute! I did my first toothpick test at 20 min. You can start then and keep checking if you want!
-Paula
5 Heidi @ Food Doodles // Jul 14, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Yum! Those look awesome and I love that you’ve used whole wheat flour!
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