Monday’s Muffin: Oatmeal Honey Muffins (and Picasso)

On Sous Chef’s last day of Spring Break, we went to see the Picasso exhibit currently featured at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. It was a great morning spent at the museum together viewing, discussing and appreciating the talented art of Pablo Picasso. This exhibit is on loan from the Musée National Picasso, Paris and is only making one east coast and two west coast stops while on tour in the United States. The exhibition will be in Richmond from February 19 through May 15, 2011 and is co-organized by the Musée National Picasso, Paris and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

After May 15th, the collection will move from Virginia to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and will be open to the public from June 11th through September 18th. If you have the opportunity to see the exhibit in either Richmond or San Francisco, it is most definitely worth the trip.

So while I am brimming over with culture and in an artistic frame of mind, let’s talk muffins. After all, it is Monday. Sometimes a muffin should be plain. It should be a canvas for a favorite topping – butter, jelly, honey or even your favorite topping of Nutella.

After a few weeks of flavor filled, decadent muffins, I was looking for something this week that would be just a little more healthy. Oatmeal is a popular winter breakfast in our household, but not so much after the weather warms up. Since you don’t want to ignore the health benefits of oatmeal, this muffin is a great choice because it is made with healthy ingredients such as oatmeal, buttermilk and sweetened with honey. The texture of the muffin is more coarse because of the oatmeal, but still very moist. This recipe is adapted from a recipe found on the cooks.com website.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, unbeaten
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a muffin pan with muffin paper liners or grease individual cups with butter. Soak the oats in buttermilk for at least 30 minutes. Beat egg into oat mixture. Warm the honey slightly in the microwave so that it mixes easier. Add the honey to the oat mixture and combine thoroughly. Stir together flour, salt and soda. Stir flour mixture into oatmeal then add melted butter. Mix until just combined. The muffins will be tough if you over mix the batter. Bake 15-20 minutes until browned. Makes 1 dozen muffins.

Kitchenarian Notes: You can replace the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour or even make it half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour.

Enjoy!