Mini cranberry oat muffins

This post is sponsored by Gay Lea.

When the brief for this month’s Gay Lea post came out (back in early July), my heart sank. Back to school? Really? It felt like we had just started summer holidays. Even now, there are still a few solid weeks of vacation left so it’s hard for me to get my head in the “back to school” game. Fortunately, whether it’s back to school season or not, I generally have lunches to pack (for Neil – yes, even adults need lunchboxes!) so it was easy coming up with a recipe that works for both adult and children’s lunchboxes (and, also for general breakfast and snack food!).

I’ve been working a lot with yoghurt recently for a few different recipes so I was excited to discover Hewitt’s 2% Natural Yogourt in my local health food store just before I left for France. I’m always on the lookout for a good plain yoghurt and Hewitt’s is made without additives or preservatives and has a fat content of 2%, making it a lower fat alternative for people who don’t want, need or like higher fat content in their yoghurt. It doesn’t taste or have the texture of “low fat” yoghurt either which I really appreciate.

For today’s recipe, I’ve used the yoghurt in mini muffins to boost the protein content making them an ideal breakfast snack or lunchbox (or anytime) treat.

These are not super sweet (too often muffins are just cupcakes with a different name) and use vegetable oil and applesauce instead of butter which produces a moist yet fluffy crumb. The addition of oats makes them a little more substantial too which means you don’t need six of them to feel satisfied (be honest, when things are smaller, do you find yourself saying “Hey, they’re just little so I can have a few?” No? Ok, then…. as you were….).

The recipe makes around 40 so its a good one to make on the weekends and freeze a few, thawing them as needed for a quick breakfast on the go or an excellent addition to any lunchbox.

Mini cranberry oat muffins

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

These mini cranberry oat muffins make a great quick breakfast on the go or a snack on the run.

Author: Mardi Michels

Recipe type: Breakfast

Serves: 40 muffins

Ingredients

• 150 g (1 cup) all purpose flour
• 85 g (1 cup) large flake rolled oats (not instant oats)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• 1 large egg
• 250 mL (1 cup) Hewitt’s 2% Plain Yogourt
• 125 mL (1/2 cup) applesauce
• 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly grease 2 x 24 capacity mini muffin tins
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cranberries.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, yogurt, applesauce, sugar, vanilla and vegetable oil until well-combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and stir gently with a rubber spatula until just combined
6. Use a cookie scoop or a tablespoon to fill the muffin tins about ¾ full.
7. Bake for 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffins comes out clean and the tops are firm.
8. Remove the muffin tins from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for 10-15 minutes then remove muffins from the tins and cool completely.
9. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
10. Can be frozen (in airtight Ziplock bags), then thawed in the microwave, individually (wrapped in paper towel) as needed.

3.5.3208

About Hewitt’s Dairy: The Hewitt’s story began in 1887, when founder, James Hewitt, began delivering milk to the people of Hagersville, Ontario in a horse-drawn wagon. Today, Hewitt’s Dairy continues to produce an expansive range of quality Canadian dairy products, including a full range of fluid milk, a variety of specialty goat milk products, and the rich Hewitt’s ice cream we are renowned for, manufactured in over 60 flavours and served at the celebrated Hewitt’s Dairy Bar north of Hagersville. A proud member of the Gay Lea Foods Co-operative family since 2014, Hewitt’s is proudly owned by Canadian dairy farmers and remains committed its rural Ontario legacy. We are honored to provide the fresh, quality Canadian dairy products our consumers know and love, made from milk provided by local Ontario dairy farmers.

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Disclosure: I am part of the PTPA Brand Ambassador Program with Gay Lea, and receive compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. As always, opinions expressed here are my own and I only write about/ recommend products I use and love. If you know me in real life or follow me on social media, you’ll know that writing a French food cookbook requires ridiculous amounts of butter so this campaign is a perfect fit 😉