Low-Fat Oat Flour Cranberry Muffins

Oat flour is a new addition to my pantry and I’m using it quite often these days. It’s nothing but finely powdered oats. You can prepare it yourself using quick cooking oats and a food processor. I also noticed that cookies baked with oat flour is not as dense as the ones baked with whole wheat flour. I recently baked fat free chocolate chip cookies using part all purpose flour and part oat flour and I didn’t feel any difference at all taste-wise. Though the cookies were not the exact replica texture-wise because I had used unsweetened applesauce instead of butter. It felt more like a muffin/cake than a cookie. I’m still working to perfect a low fat chocolate chip cookie recipe. Until then here’s a recipe for cranberry muffins using oat flour. The original recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens’ Off the Shelf Baking. I have made a couple of changes to make it egg free and healthy.
Yield: 9 regular size muffins.
2 In a medium bowl sift together the flours, salt, baking powder. Add sugar, dried fruit and the nuts. Combine well. Make a well in the center and set aside.
3 In a liquid measuring mug measure the milk, add the yogurt, orange juice (or peel) and whisk well.
4 Add the wet ingredients to the flour all at once and stir just until combined. Do not over mix. At this point I felt that the batter was very thick, so I added another 2 tablespoons of milk. The consistency felt right after adding the milk.
5 Now spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each two thirds full. I have a ladle which holds 3 tablespoons of batter and it’s the perfect amount to bake the perfect sized muffins. Sprinkle oats on top, if using.
6 Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Mine was done by 19 minutes.
7 Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm (See Taste).
2 Oat flour is readily available in some of the grocery stores. You can make it at home too by finely processing quick cooking oats in a food processor/mixer. Since oat flour does not contain gluten, it cannot substitute 100% of all purpose flour/whole wheat flour. Baked goods will not rise if it is only used. So it has to be used in combination with either all purpose flour or whole wheat flour.
3 I didn’t have fresh oranges to make the zest, so I went with 2 tablespoons of store bought orange juice. This does not give that fresh orange flavor, but be careful not to go overboard with the juice because sometimes the store bought juice has a bitter after-taste and it spoils the taste of the baked goods.
4 I have used 2 tablespoons of yogurt in place of one egg white mentioned in the recipe. Even after using 2 tablespoons of orange juice I found that the batter was very thick, so I had to use another 2 tablespoons of milk. I think the whole wheat flour and the oat flour absorbed more moisture. So consider what type of flour you are using and add water as required.
5 The original recipe is supposed to yield 12 muffins but I got only 9.
These Oat Flour Cranberry Muffins go to my low-fat baking event and
Mansi’s Sugar High Friday.
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June 15th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Madhuram,I have heard that milk can also be used instead of egg where eggs are used for moisture.I am not sure thgh.Reading thru your post ,I thght of asking you as you have used yogurt as a replacer and also milk is already there in the recipe.Did the batter look curdled ? Do let me know Sorry for asking confusing/amaeteur questions.
No problem Sweatha. It did not look curdled. Actually I had just 2 tablespoons of yogurt left in the container so I decided to use it. As you have mentioned, plain milk can also be used, if egg is used for moisture alone.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Wow Madhu..Looks scrumptious..Even i had the same doubt as sweatha asked, thanks for clearing the doubt!
June 15th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I have never seen oat flour here, could be also i didn’t know they excisted.
Muffins look so so delicous.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Cranberry muffins look so good, yummy!!
June 15th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Low fat?? They look amazing! I adore cranberry anything.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
That looks lovely..
Madhu, am happy to share my AWARD with you. Pls check it out in my page.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I have tried using oat flour while baking breads. This sounds like a great idea!
June 15th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
i love the addition of oats…you have a lovely blog with great
recipes…
Thanks Pooja.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
These look tasty and healthy!
June 15th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Muffins look great!! Hat’s off for your healthy creations Madhu!! Wonderful
June 15th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
hi madhu, the muffins look great !, as usual pictures are perfect! I am planning to bake something to ur eggless, low fat event hope i will do it !, and I have just posted my eggless cake!, I wish you would look into it whenever you have time and give me some suggestions please…..
June 15th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
all these berry recipes in the blogosphere. man! yummy
June 15th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Oat flour is a staple in my kitchen – I use it from making
chapathis to poories to baking to..god knows what else!
They r amazing to work with arent they?
The muffins look yummy!
June 16th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Thanks for the reply Madhu.Its really helpful and useful.
June 16th, 2009 at 5:59 am
What a classic Blog you have here…!!!

.. !!
I am in LOVE with it
Love all your treats
Thanks Bharathy.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:03 am
I’ve never thot of buying oats flour…this sounds interesting.thanks for the wonderful recipe.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Woww…looks yummyyy.. amzing click!!.. thanks for the recipe..
June 16th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Madhuram, how beautiful are those muffins? I love that color!
I too am a huge fan of oat flour– because it is light and gluten-free, it tastes absolutely delicious in baked recipes. I often add it to pancakes and waffles, because it brings a freshness to the taste.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Nice muffins, love the fancy paper cups. Wish I could get them somewhere too.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I haven’t experimented too much with oat flour. Sounds like it isn’t too complicated. Maybe I’ll try it next time.
It’s good Bharti. You don’t get the raw smell like when you use whole wheat flour, no difference in taste. I also tried one traditional south Indian recipe replacing it for the rice flour and it came out so good.
June 17th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Madhu the muffin looks very yummy. Yes i also use the Oats flour extensively. It is very versatile and you can mix it in Paratha, Appam or Dosai also.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:25 am
hey madhu my !st event! pls participate and spread the news!
thank u!
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 am
hi madhu, what whole wheat flour do u use? is it the atta from indian stores? or a diff one? is it diff from whoe wheat pastry flour?
Sai, for this recipe I have used King Arthur’s white whole wheat flour. Reg. whole wheat flour, I don’t have any particular brand. Whole wheat pastry flour is different from both white whole wheat flour and the regular wheat flour. It’s more finer in texture but retains the goodness of the regular wheat flour.
June 25th, 2009 at 10:28 am
gosh! they look so yummy! you are truly a genius at all these eggless baking concoctions! wish you stayed somewhere near
thanks for sending it to SHF!
July 9th, 2009 at 5:20 am
[...] Low-Fat Oat Flour Cranberry Muffins [...]
July 16th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Hi, been reading your submissions of baked goods made with whole wheat. I have a problem with whole wheat baking.Anytime i bake with whole wheat the insides don’t get cooked,pls help me what am i doing wrong? Wait to hear from you.
I gathered few points from various websites, maybe you can try it the next time you bake with whole wheat flour. Try adding at least 1/3rd cup of all purpose flour so that the baked good does not become very heavy and looks like uncooked. Also sift whole wheat flour a couple of times to incorporate air into the dough/batter, so that it does not become very dense. Also allow the baked goods to cool completely. (This is from personal experience, I feel that leaving it to cool overnight makes the texture more preferable). I also read that if baking completely with whole wheat flour it is advisable to increase the quantity of any liquid in the recipe a little bit or else the baked goods may become dry, but I’m thinking that is not the problem in your case. If nothing works try your luck with white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:50 am
oh my god! thank you so much! i am the worlds worst baker and always have problems making nice muffins cakes etc. this was so easy and they are really tasty. i didnt have oat flour so i just blended oats up quite small and it worked and i used coconut rather than cranberry the second time. love this site and am now looking forward to baking new things
You’re welcome Kalindi. It’s so wonderful to hear that the muffins turned out good.