Oatmeal Raisin Muffins and Chocolate Chip Muffins

For some strange reason, I really wanted to try the oatmeal muffins recipe from MuffinRecipes.net. I have no idea why, but the person who made up this recipe seems to think it's a good idea to use sour milk. Um... absolutely not. I don't even want sour milk near me, let alone in my food. Instead, I used vanilla rice milk and soaked the oatmeal for about 24 hours instead of just overnight.

It's been awhile since I used shortening, so I forgot how difficult it is to work with. When I tried to add the Crisco to the mixing bowl, it refused to let go of the measuring spoon. Then it refused to mix with anything and just sat in lumps, but I think I got it with some elbow grease. By the way, I don't know if we have an electric mixer or not, but I just like to do it by hand. I was feeling really tired and cranky, and as soon as I started mixing stuff, I had a drastic mood change. Yeah, I definitely need to keep baking.

The other ingredients mixed together without the oatmeal/milk

All ingredients

According to the recipe, raisins are optional. I disagree; raisins are essential. I also added cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract because that's what I always put in my oatmeal. If we had any brown sugar, I would have added that, too.

I found these little boxes of raisins, and I used three and a half boxes. When the muffins came out of the oven, they were moist and delicious and the raisins were soft and juicy and awesome. I ended up with 14 muffins. I guess it was supposed to be a dozen, so maybe I should start filling the muffin cups more.

At work today when I mentioned the possibility of muffins, someone requested chocolate chip. So I had to find a recipe for chocolate chip muffins. I didn't like the one at MuffinRecipes.net because it uses 4 eggs, and I only had 4 left. I never like to be completely without eggs. I found an awesome recipe that makes basic muffins and allows you to choose your own add-ins. So I added one cup of chocolate chips.

I also sprinkled a few chocolate chips on the top of each muffin before I put them in the oven, partly for awesomeness and partly so I could tell them apart from the oatmeal raisin muffins. Again, I used vanilla rice milk instead of regular milk, and I substituted apple sauce for the oil. I don't know why they say to add oil, but applesauce tastes better and makes the muffins more moist. (Yeah alliteration!)

I will definitely be using this recipe again. I'm in love with the idea of cheddar muffins, but I'm really sleepy. I'm even more in love with the idea of bacon cheddar muffins. Don't react; just think about it for a second. Bacon. Cheddar. Muffins. Yeah, it's gonna be super tasty. I'll probably have to use less sugar, though. In addition to the bacon cheddar, I'll also be tackling this one pretty soon since I had another request at work.