Dried Fruit and Oat Harvest Muffins

It's fall break and I wanted to bake up something special for the boys for breakfast. We have a bunch of raisins and dates, and to be honest I'm getting sick of working with apples. We've made apple butter, apple pie, apple cider donuts, apple cake, and batches of dried apple chips...  

You could substitute any dried fruit you had on hand in these muffins. In fact I'm thinking of doing an apricot and apple version in the future with some of the fruit we dried. You could also sub out the nuts easily. Just use this recipe as a base for whatever calls to you. If I wasn't allergic I bet coconut and chocolate chips would rock these muffins too with the hints of orange and cinnamon. 

Makes 15 muffins

1 cup of rolled oats

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 cup of finely chopped walnuts, toasted

1/3 cup of raisins

1/2 cup of chopped dates

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), melted and cooled

1 cup of milk

Zest of 1 orange

1 large egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 400°F and grease a standard muffin tin plus three on another or line with paper baking cups.

Mix together the rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, walnuts, dates, and raisins. In a separate bowl mix together the milk, egg, orange zest, and butter.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir together. Be sure not to over-stir or the muffins will be tough. 

Scoop into prepared muffin tray and bake at 400°F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the tray for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.