The Perfect Rainy Day

I love days like this. Yes, it's gloomy and rainy and chilly in an un-spring-like way but I stayed home catch up on the laundry and clean the house (or at least the parts a guest would see!) No, that's not the part I love, though it's nice for it to be neat (until the kids get home). The part I really love is being in the kitchen.

I made dinner for tonight (Glee's on at 7) and tomorrow, too. There are also peanut butter bars for lunch boxes and blood orange bars just because. I also made more Oatmeal Buttermilk Raisin Muffins. I say more because I've made them three times now. That's how much I love them.


I discovered this wonderful recipe before I found these fabulous oats grown by Three Sisters Garden. I wrote about their black beans here before. Lately my favorite of their products is the rolled oats, the likes of which I've never seen before. I buy them at the Green City Market on my monthly trips. I love oats in anything and oatmeal is a favorite breakfast. A standard bowl of oats may have to move over for these muffins - for a while.


Check these out. The oats on the top are old-fashioned Quaker oats. The oats on the bottom are grown by Three Sisters. Less rolled than the kindly Quaker's but more so than Irish oats. They cook the same as any rolled oats but ohhhh, so much better.

The important step of soaking the oats in buttermilk is even more important when using these toothy oats. I throw the raisins in then too so they get nice and plump.


A little butter, eggs and brown sugar.


Fold in the dry stuff - flour, powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. If you like, the batter may be refrigerated overnight and baked off in the morning without any difference in texture. Could these get any better? The perfect way to serve warm, fresh muffins without being up at the crack of dawn.

Scoop the batter into some pretty muffin cups. I am pushover for the cute patterns, never mind that you can't see them after the cake is baked.

The original recipe says it makes 12. Maybe my muffin cups are smaller sized regular cups but filling 12 cups make 12 enormous overflowing muffins. I like to divide the batter between 16 to 18 cups for nice neat muffins. I have divided the recipe with great success and find it makes closer to 12 smallish, more flat, muffins.

They are perfect with a cup of tea on a rainy day.

Buttermilk Oat Muffins with Raisins
adapted from Butter, Sugar, Flour, Eggs by Gale Gand

2 cups rolled oats, not quick cooking
2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1t. cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
12 T. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup raisins

Combine the oats, buttermilk and raisins in a large bowl and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Heat the oven 375 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Butter the top of the muffin tin to prevent the muffins from sticking - just in case they over flow a bit.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together.

Add the eggs to the oat -milk mixture and combine. Add the sugar and mix. Add the butter and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix. The batter will be a bit lumpy.

*Bonus: The batter may be made up to this point and refrigerated overnight.

Use a large spoon or an ice cream scoop to fill the muffins cups 3/4 full. Bake until the muffins are risen and golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes our clean. ( a few crumbs are okay), 20-25 minutes

Makes about 16-18 muffins