Brown Butter Honey Oat Muffins

Of my recent food obsessions (red velvet, brown butter and pancakes), brown butter is the most versatile technique/the easiest ingredient to incorporate into a recipe. For example, this morning I thought to myself, I wonder if brown butter would work well in muffins. So I googled brown butter muffins. And came across about a bazillion recipes. (I’m not as original as I thought I was!)

The recipe I found for Brown Butter Honey Oat Muffins inspired a bake-off in my kitchen this morning: the recipe I found versus the recipe I created based off the recipe I found.

You see, I wanted to bring muffins along to my hair appointment to share with my stylist and his partner (not knowing his partner has a wheat allergy). As I was mixing the batter, I thought to myself … this recipe isn’t right. This is all wrong! Why would you pair honey with brown butter? You should use brown sugar instead. However, by the time the thought occurred to me, it was too late. I was going to have to make two different muffins to bring with me. Sigh.

So which was the better muffin? Check out my recipe for Brown Butter, Oat and Chocolate Chip Muffins for the verdict.

muffin ingredients.

• 3/4 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/2 c. half-and-half
• 1/2 c. butter, browned and cooled a bit
• 2 large eggs, at room temp

streusel topping ingredients.

• 6 T. butter, browned and cooled
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 2 T. unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 c. rolled oats

directions.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line a 12-cup regular-size muffin tin with liners and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the oats, flours baking powder, spices and salt with a whisk.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, eggs, half-and-half and browned butter.
3. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
4. Combine the streusel ingredients and mix.
5. Scoop muffin batter into tins (about 2/3 full). Sprinkle with streusel and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing to a rack to let cool completely.

Recipe rating: 