daily bliss: muffin day

Every class has a distinct personality and a specific energy level that coalesces throughout the semester. My current composition II class has a kind of personality that can only be described as chaotic. Every session demands careful management of this chaos--allowing it to flourish into paths of creativity without devolving into utter randomness. Somewhere along the line a few months ago, muffins became the default rallying cry when I cajoled students to talk, to dig deeper, to move beyond their comfort zones. And so we declared today, incidentally (and totally unrelatedly) Shakespeare's birthday, muffin day.

And so, last night, while I was overcoming the mid-week and end-of-the-semester blues, I baked two batches of oatmeal cranberry muffins. Topped with cinnamon sugar, these muffins are deceptively luxurious, when really they're quite healthy.

Oat Muffins
originally appeared in the Holland Sentinel
with adaptations by moi

1 c rolled oats
1 c buttermilk
1 egg
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c canola oil
1/3 c dried cranberries
zest of 1 orange
1/3 c whole wheat flour
2/3 c white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix oats and buttermilk--let stand for 10 minutes. Add egg, brown sugar, oil, cranberries, and orange zest: mix. In another bowl, stir together the dry ingredients, and then add to the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. Place in prepared muffin pan--the recipe makes 12 muffins. Top each muffin with cinnamon sugar. Bake 15-20 minutes.