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I love baked oatmeal, but a plain ol’ cranberry-orange baked oatmeal recipe sounded too mainstream. Why not muffins? Easily portable, these cute baked oatmeal muffins are sure to come in handy during a busy week! The recipe makes 12 muffins – 4 servings of 3 muffins – so you can make them and keep them in the fridge for when you need something fast. I like the muffins cold, but I do prefer them warm. Heat them up for 15 seconds in the microwave and they’re perfect! You could also probably cut them in half and toast them to reheat.
The recipe below calls for overnight refrigeration of the batter. Not only does this soak the oats to help remove phytates, but it also gives these muffins a yummy cake-like texture. I’ve used this trick in several baked oatmeal recipes and I highly recommend that you do the same. I think you’ll like the result.
Three of my favorite spices – cardamom, ginger, and cloves – star in this recipe for a bit of Christmas spice. Paired with chunks of tart cranberry and sweet orange, these baked oatmeal muffins taste as pretty as they look. Don’t have this spice trio? Improvise with whatever you have that you think will taste good. And feel free to add a dash of orange extract for extra orange flavor, if that’s your thing! My favorite part of these muffins is definitely the cranberries. I left mine whole because I don’t mind tart stuff, but you may wish to chop them up into finer pieces for less impact.
Need some baked oatmeal inspiration? Right here:
You may also enjoy:
- Starting THM
- my recipe index
- my recipes grouped by fuel type, allergy info, and theme
- all my cranberry recipes
- all my Christmas recipes
- 2 c. old-fashioned oats*
- 1½ c. unsweetened almond milk**
- 1 c. cranberries (whole or chopped)
- ¾ c. egg whites
- 1 lg. orange, peeled and chopped***
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
- ¼ tsp. each cardamom, ginger, ground cloves
- -
- 1 T. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- Whisk the first set of ingredients together and refrigerate overnight.
- The next morning, whisk in the vinegar and baking powder. Divide the batter among 12 greased muffin tin holes and bake at 350* for 35 minutes. Enjoy warm or cold. Refrigerate leftovers. I like to reheat cold muffins in the microwave for 15 seconds.
**Use carton (not canned) coconut milk for a nut free version. (Most people with a nut allergy can have coconut products, but check with your doctor first.)
***Feel free to add a dash of orange extract for extra orange flavor.
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I still had two bags of getting-wrinkly cranberries bought during the Advent season. Baked a bunch of these, and have kept them in the freezer for slow-start homeschool mornings. Woohoo!
Hubs and Kid 1 (9) like to warm them in the oven and drizzle it with honey and heavy cream.
Kid 2 (8) likes to smash it the night before in a mason jar and mix it with sweetener and whole milk Greek yogurt for “overnight oats.”
Kid 3 (5) doesn’t like oats, but will eat these because I told her it is a granola bar in a different shape. It worked. She ate two today!
Kid 4 (2) is weird with textures, so I keep the edges for myself (yum) and give her the middles. Win-win!
Is this what having kids is like? Bahaha…sounds like you’re making it work. I love it!
Dear Briana, I am new to THM and am so thankful for your recipes you so kindly provide.
I am looking for no special ingredients recipes for my repertoire, would you please share some? Thank you.
ps If using the frozen cranberries in the above recipe, do I need to bring them to room temperature?
Hi Jane! Here’s an index with all of my no special ingredients recipes (for my purposes I define that as recipes that can be made with ingredients found at Walmart/local grocery stores, and since low glycemic sweeteners are easy to find locally these days and swap out according to taste, you’ll probably find recipes in there that use some of the THM sweeteners): https://www.briana-thomas.com/indexes/fuel-type-allergy-info-theme/no-special-ingredients
You don’t need to thaw the cranberries because the oatmeal batter gets refrigerated overnight anyway and they’ll thaw in the fridge before baking. 🙂
I do not have thestevia extract powder is there something else I could use in it place. Thank you
Hi Carolyn! You’re welcome to use your favorite low-glycemic sweetener to taste, or use this conversion chart to help you >> https://media.trimhealthymama.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/05/07222306/THM.Sweetener-Conversion-Chart.pdf
These are one of my favorites! I don’t always have the cranb so will sub with saskatoons, blueb or rasp. So yummy 🙂 Use them as a quick on the go brkfst/lunch.
My grocery store didn’t have fresh cranberries – I have a package of dried cranberries – would that work?
As long as they don’t have added sugar. 🙂 I would rehydrate them with some hot water, then drain before using them in the recipe.
I just made these and they are amazing!!!!! Glad to have another E breakfast as an option 🙂
I’ve never used Cardamom. What would you recommend in its place if you had to replace it with something? Should I just leave it out?
Thank you for posting your amazing recipes! I love your blog 🙂
I don’t know of anything that tastes all that similar, to be honest, but you could just use more cinnamon.
Can I use just the ginger and not the cardamom and cloves. I don’t like the flavor of clove. Is there a similar substitute? Thanks and can’t wait to receive your cookbook!
Feel free to use whatever you like. I happen to enjoy this particular combination in these amounts. 🙂
I recently made dried cranberries after making cranberry juice from fresh cranberries. I added stevia and orange zest to the leftover cranberry pulp, let them soak overnight in the fridge and dried them in the oven . I’m going to add these and some orange zest tonight! Thanks for this great recipe!
Did you use whole fresh cranberries? Not the dried sweetened ones?
Thanks!
Yes, whole fresh cranberries.
Brianna- First, thank you for all your hard work reinventing some of our favorite recipes. I’ve tried many & have yet to find one I didn’t like. Secondly, I don’t have stevia powder but I do have Pyure. What would the conversion be.
Hi Stacy! You can use this sweetener conversion chart to help converting between sweeteners. Just find out how Pyure compares in sweetness to sugar and use that in your calculations. http://www.trimhealthymama.com/main-home/sweetener-conversion-chart/