Oatmeal maple Syrup Muffins (With Fruit AND With Chips)

The oatmeal baking continues! I needed to find some other creative way to make a dent  in all the damn oatmeal I still have left. So I found this recipe. In the interest of trying to eat a bit better I have been making less sweets and trying to make savory or healthier stuff. Plus my hubby is not too into sweets these days- crazy right- and he's my official  taste tester. I thought a muffin would work to fill all these criteria. That and I had maple syrup in the fridge because we couldn't help ourselves last time at Coscto when we saw it. No will power I tell ya!

After making these muffins and eating most of them myself for breakfast all week, heated slightly with a bit of butter on them, with my morning coffee.....I made them again! They were THAT GOOD. I used the exact same base recipe and instead of fruit I added chocolate and white chocolate chips to them.

Make these, really. Whatever variation!

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup half-and-half (i used whole milk)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Fruit (I used about 3/4 cup of frozen berries we had)
OR
Chips (I used about 3/4 cup of mixed chocolate and white chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in maple syrup, egg, cream and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture just long enough to incorporate. Fold in fruit or chips. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

(please don't notice the icky midget size oven)
Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from pans and place on a wire rack to cool before serving.

They are really so yummy. The fruit was really nice in them. The chips seemed to make the maple flavor more pronounced, So good.

it's stinky and raining out today so I may make another batch of them and throw in my please-use-me-now-or loose-me-forever bananas i have from this week. Maple & Banana- can't go wrong!