Alright, I know what you’re thinking: Surely this woman has consumed/baked a chocolate chip muffin in her life. You’d be right, in fact, my favorite way to consume a chocolate chip muffin as a child was in the form of a muffin top from a bakery in my hometown and one of the main bakes I made during the winter of 2021 was a chocolate chip bread. So when I say I’m “trying something new” here I really mean I’m trying out a new recipe and which calls for adding oatmeal to the muffins.

This was an interesting experiment because as a general rule, my husband does not like cookies that contain oatmeal. Raisin cookies? Totally fine. Oatmeal raisin cookies? You’ve lost him. Chocolate chip cookies? Not his favorite but he’ll consume them. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? Not a chance. We’ve discussed the logic of this a few times before, it’s not that the cookie is trying to be “healthy” it’s just that the oatmeal changes the texture of the cookie. Despite his reservations when adding oatmeal to a cookie, he was all for the idea of adding oatmeal to a muffin. Go figure.

After a little hemming and hawing, I opted for Little Sweet Baker’s recipe. Thought drawn to the simplicity of the ingredients/instructions, I was particularly interested in how soaking the oats for 15 minutes would change the consistency of the muffins. I did make two modifications to the recipe: I used soy milk instead of cow’s milk due to dairy issues and I was generous when adding the vanilla (because vanilla is delicious).

Honestly, I think I could have added another handful or two of chocolate chips. Partially because I believe a good chocolate chip muffin has a fair amount of chocolate in it and partially because the smell of chocolate never permeated my kitchen while the muffins baked.

In the end, I’m not sure I’ll make this one again. It’s not that they tasted bad or had a jarring consistency, it’s just that I’m not convinced that adding oatmeal to the muffins really did anything. Highly recommend the extra vanilla though, it was pleasantly noticeable.