Miso Oatmeal Muffins
The chill in the air is starting to shake off and it feels like the days are getting longer and warmer. We’ve made some easy but major improvements to our yard recently by way of cheap string lights and Target patio furniture. I’m loving it so much, because now we can essentially have every meal outside! My mornings have been the opposite of gentle lately because the moment I get up I feel the intense urgency to continue working on my cookbook page layouts and not move from my spot on the couch for 16 hours. When it’s cold and rainy, it’s very easy to sit in one cozy, blanket fortified spot for that long. I’m gradually emerging from the stress of page layouts and enjoying my mornings outside on the deck with coffee and a warm muffin. Specifically these Miso Oatmeal Muffins!
If you’ve known me for a while, then you’ll probably know I’m a life long member of Team Savory Oatmeal. It’s my favorite breakfast and I love it’s adjacency to jook. I have my trusted savory oatmeal recipe on the blog. If I don’t have chicken or vegetable stock on hand, I’ll add some chicken bouillon or miso paste as my flavor foundation and then add all the toppings I have available. There’s normally green onion, furikake, sesame seeds, and fried garlic involved.
I can safely say that I am officially a savory breakfast person. That doesn’t mean I won’t indulge in pancakes or a stack of waffles, but I much prefer to start my day off with salt rather than sugar.
Savory Oatmeal Muffins
These muffins were inspired by my love of savory oatmeal and a need for more handy breakfast options. In an ideal world, I would peaceful craft a warm and cozy breakfast each morning. While some mornings I definitely have the bandwidth to do that, but most mornings I rather have something handy to warm up so I have more time to sit outside and enjoy some fresh air before the real work day starts.
I love the addition of oats in baked goods lately. It adds a great earthy and nutty flavor and retains moisture so well! That means your baked goods will be extra tender and moist! I start the recipe off by soaking the old fashioned (don’t use any other kind) oats in essentially a concentrated miso broth, to really get that strong miso flavor.
The dry ingredients are all your standard players of Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour, leaveners, and salt. My pantry has been stocked with Bob’s products for years, they are just the best and everything you see me make with flour is from them! You can experiment with some additional flavors, same as you would with a bowl of savory oatmeal. I love adding black pepper, chili flake for heat, and green onions because they make everything taste better.
Big muffins for breakfast
The batter is divided to make 7 large muffins. I wanted the classic muffin top with the dome and thin crisp edges. These muffins are quite fluffy so they do rise a bit in the oven. I recommend alternating the muffin tin cavities so that batter has room to spread. I tried my best to get the recipe down to exactly 6 muffins, but the ratios just work best when resulting in 7 big beautiful muffins. 6 large muffins will fit in a standard muffin tin with 12 cavities, so I’ll either just bake a tin with only 1 muffin in the middle or add it to the first tray by filling up a whole row and living with it. The edge will touch but it won’t be a huge deal! If you want to make smaller muffins then just divide the batter into 12!
The muffins will come out tall and deeply golden brown. Let them cool for a few minutes before breaking into one. Since the oats make the muffins really moist, the texture is better and fluffier when they have had some time to cool. I love to slather on some butter or hot honey, but they honestly tasted amazing as is! Any leftover muffins can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge for a few days and reheat beautifully in the toaster oven!
Miso Oatmeal Muffins
makes 7 large muffins
materials:
45g (1 tbsp) miso
340g (1 1/2 cup) hot water
110g (1 cup) Bob’s Red Mill Old Fashioned Roll Oats
190g (1 1/2 cups) Bob’s Red Mill All-purpose Flour
2 tsp Bob’s Red Mill Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bob’s Red Mill Baking Soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili flake
1 cup chopped green onions, whites and greens, plus more for topping
110g (1/2 cup) olive oil
1 egg
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
steps:
In a large bowl, whisk to combine miso and hot water. Add the oats and stir to combine. Loosely cover with a kitchen towel and allow the oats to soak and plump up, 20 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk to combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, black pepper, chili flake, and green onions.
After soaking the oats, add the olive oil and egg. Whisk until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix with a flexible spatula until just combined barely and no traces of flour are left. Cover the bowl and let the batter rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. This allows the batter to fully hydrate and result in extra tender muffins.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray the bottom and sides of every other cavity of a standard muffin tin with nonstick spray or brush well with oil. The muffins will dome and spread over the surface of the muffin tin, so allowing an empty cavity between each muffin will help them form properly. Since the recipe tends to make 7 muffins, I’ll bake a single muffin at the end while the first batch cools or just fill up a whole roll of muffins and live with it.
Fill each greased muffin cavity with 6 tablespoons of batter, it will be about 1/4” to 1/2” above the rim of the muffin tin. Top each muffin with chopped green onion and sesame seeds. Bake until deeply golden brown and set in the center, 32 to 35 minutes.
Transfer the muffin tin to a wire rack to cook. Allow the muffins to cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then carefully lift the muffins out of the tin and on to the wire rack to continue cooling. Enjoy warm or store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. I love to reheat the muffin in the microwave or toaster oven so that it’s a little warm again!
recipe notes: Instead of 7 large muffins, you can make smaller muffins by dividing the batter into 12 cavities. They just won’t have the dramatic muffin top!