Pirate Bakery #1: Apple Oat Muffins

In my attempt to avoid my endless assignment work (yes it really is endless) I took a muffin break. I’m really been working on healthifying some of my favourite muffins recipes. I have become a healthy pirate on the seas of deliciousness - stealing my favourite recipes and making them healthier and dare I say better than they were before. My muffiny skull and crossed wooden spoon Jolly Roger warns on comers that tasty things are coming. (yes I have been working too much...humour me).

I have done it again - scrumptious moist muffins and they're about 135 calories each…really low in fat and full of good things. A perfect snack. The only way I could improve these even more would be to swap out sugar for maple syrup, but I have no maple syrup around what can ya do…and the banana was just because I had a ripe banana…you could leave it out if you don't have one. I think it helped.

We are the Pirate Bakery. These are our muffins. Enjoy.

1 small apple peeled and chopped up

2 L brown eggs

1/2 c unsweetened apple sauce

~2T oil (a "glodge" worth. You could leave it out but it seems to add a real richness)

1 ripe banana mashed up smooth

1 c whole wheat flour

1 c white flour

2/3 c brown sugar (could cut to 1/2 if you like. I like this amount)

1 ¼ c 1% milk

1 T vanilla

1 T cinnamin

½ c wild oatmeal

1 well rounded T baking powder

½ t salt

Put oats and milk in a bowl and let sit 5 minutes. Then add everything except the flour and baking powder and mix up well with a whisk. Mix flour and b.powder together and sprinkle over top evenly, then mix until just mixed (Don't overmix or you get chewy muffins) and fill up muffin papers in the pan to the top…these don't rise too much so don't worry about overflow. I had enough for probably 13 muffins, but what can ya do? J just ate the rest of the batter. Problem solved :)

Bake for ~18-20 minutes at 375, until the tops bounce back when you tap them. Do not overbake them or you will be sad. Noone wants to be sad. Use a toothpick to check if they're done if you aren't sure - it will come out clean. And lately I usually don't do muffin papers, but for low fat muffins like this break down, swallow your environmentyness and use muffin papers…otherwise they're a real bitch to get out of the pan whole…

There you go - enjoy. I did.

Delish and good for ya.