Oats Muffins

I seem to be stocking up on a lot of things. One of the disadvantages of frequent visits to the supermarket - you do end up picking a lot of stuff that you don't really need, and I mean - A LOT. I had picked up this bag of oats for a quick weekday breakfast, just as I had many other such similar items. I got home last evening elated that I need not cook as I had lots of food leftover from the previous day. With time on my hands, I decided to make these oats muffins which I got from here.

If you are a Sindhi and know what "kutti" is, you will love these. It reminded me so much of the days when mom would fast on Teej and bring this delectable treat home. "Kutti" is something like roasted wheat flour with sugar. The sugar is added when the flour is hot which causes it to just melt, creating magical flavours and texture.

Ingredients (For 6 muffins) :
For Streusel :

1. 1/8 cup all purpose flour
2. 1/6 cup oats
3. 1/8 cup brown sugar
4. 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

For Muffins :

1. 1/2 cup milk
2. 1/8 cup oil
3. 1 beaten egg
4. 1/2 tsp vanilla essence/powder
5. 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
6. 1/6 cup brown sugar
7. 1/2 cup oats
8. 1/2 tablespoon baking powder

How I made it :
Prep for stresel:

1. Mix together the oats, sugar and wheat flour.
2. Cut in the butter. Mix with a fork to form a crumby mixture. Keep aside.

Muffins:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degree C
2. Mix together the baking powder, wheat flour, oats and sugar. If using vanilla powder, add that now. If using vanilla essence hold off with that in this step.
3. Mix together milk, oil and egg. If using vanilla essence, add that in.
4. Mix the wet and dry. Pour into muffin moulds. 
5. Sprinkle streusel on the top. Press it in lightly.
6. Bake for 20 minutes.

The top has a light crunch which rates this quite high on my list of dishes to make again and again. Tastes best when had warm on the same day. It loses its crunch the next day.

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Strawberry Oats Cake

It is strawberry season here and I just dunno why but I picked up a pack of strawberries while we grocery shopping this weekend. When I found a tiny amount of oats remaining in a jar, I knew that I had to make the strawberry oats cake that I had seen on Aparna and Greeshma's blog - here. I was just hoping that I had the right amount of oats. Gingerly I opened up my laptop and found the recipe which is actually from this site. I was happy to see that it required just 1/2 a cup of oats. Since, it is just two of us, I usually make cakes with a cup of flour so I had to just halve the ingredients and 1/4 cup of oats is all that was needed.

As you all do know me by now, I just had to put in a twist or two.

Ingredients:
1. 1 cup of whole wheat flour
2. 1/4 cup of quaker quick coooking oats
3. 1 teaspoon of baking powder
4. 1 whole nestle strawberry yoghurt

5. chopped walnuts
6. A pinch of salt

7. 1 egg ( the original recipe indicates the use of a ripe banana which was, in my case, amidst gastronomical juices today)
8. 1/2 cup of sugar
9. 1/4 cup of honey
10. 1/2 to 3/4 cup of strawberries chopped (The cake was very moist due to the number of strawberries that I had put in. This reflects a modified moderate amount)
11. 1/4 cup oil
12. 2 tbsp of milk - can avoid if the batter is smooth

How I made it :
1. Sieve together the salt, baking powder, atta. Add the oats and walnuts.
2. Beat the egg with sugar, honey, oil.
3. Once the mixture is creamy, add the yoghurt and the dry mixture of step 1. Fold in the ingredients.
4. Add the strawberries. Mix softly. Add the milk if the batter is too thick and lumpy.
5. Bake for 45 minutes in a pre-heated oven for 45 minutes at 180 degree C.

This cake is quite moist and therefore can't be kept for more than a day.

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