Cranberry Ginger Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup cranberries
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup chopped uncrystallized candied ginger
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line or grease and flour one 12 well muffin tin. In a large bowl, mix together the oatmeal, egg, oil, milk, and sugar. After it is thoroughly mixed, add in the flour, salt and baking soda. Stir to combine. Fold in the cranberries and ginger chunks. Divide evenly amount 12 muffin wells.



Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the center muffin comes out clean.



Cool on a wire rack, serve.

My thoughts:

My husband really enjoys having muffins on hand to take to work for breakfast (his workday starts at 7 AM) so I am constantly trying to think of new muffin variations to make. I had about a cup of cranberries in the fridge and some uncrystallized candied ginger leftover from an earlier baking gig and wanted to make something that used both of them up. Matt requested a muffin with oatmeal so I combined the three and this is what I came up with. They are on the tart and spicy side-no confusion over muffin vs. cupcake here-but not so tart or spicy they are unpleasant and are full of interesting chunky bits. I think they are suitably festive enough to serve at some sort of holiday brunch or even to give as a gift-it is that time of the year-but they also freeze well for everyday eating. My husband like to freeze some of the batch and then take them frozen to work and microwave them to fully defrost. The oats really make the difference, they are very satisfying to eat, one really fills you up for breakfast.