Get The Healthy Benefits Of Oats In Muffins And Cobblers

April 09, 1987|By Joyce Rosencrans, Scripps Howard News Service.

Feeling guilty that no oatmeal is passing your lips these wintry mornings? Grandma was right, you know. Oats are not only good for horses but also good for us in a special way.

Other cereals contain fiber that we need, but water-soluble oat fiber is different in that it seems to be helpful in reducing blood cholesterol levels further than a fat-reduced diet alone.

Despite this newly discovered incentive for eating oatmeal, it remains much the same in any breakfast bowl, no matter how skillful the cook. Oats undisguised are beige-gray, bland and sticky.

With enough dedication to a good diet and healthy lifestyle, a bowl of oatmeal can be tolerated, maybe even enjoyed. A tad of brown sugar or honey, some sliced fruit or raisins along with milk make oatmeal slide down easier, even the most sticky and bland of all, the instant oat products.

Perhaps a new approach could raise your oat consumption without your having to face it in a bowl every morning.

Muffins are good breakfast food, too, and these include whole wheat flour, low-fat buttermilk and iron-rich dried fruit. A batch can be made and frozen for using a few at a time. Reheating is easy in a microwave oven.

With February, cherry desserts come to mind. Oats not only can be used to make a delicious streusel topping for apple crisp but also incorporated into a delicate, biscuitlike cobbler topping for tart cherries.

This cobbler is not very sweet because a can of tart cherries, drained, is simply added to ``lite-style`` cherry pie filling. For some vitamin A content, some chopped canned apricots can be added. You can skip the extra steps of cooking the fruit with cornstarch and sugar because the thickened sauce in the pie filling is adequate. You simply add more fruit for that generous homemade character without the gluey sauce of most cherry desserts.

But to eat oats in quantity for optimum health benefits, you still have to face a bowlful once in a while. So why not switch oat styles?


12 muffins

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Baking time: 12 to 14 minutes

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup rolled oats, quick or old-fashioned

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup raisins, chopped dates, prunes or apricots; plump by soaking in hot water or fruit juice

1. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cups. Heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Beat egg in a mixing bowl and stir in the brown sugar, oats and buttermilk. Let stand while combining the whole wheat flour, salt, soda and baking powder in a separate container. Add dry ingredients and oil to oat mixture, stirring with a spoon just enough to moisten ingredients. Do not overbeat. Stir in fruit.

3. Spoon batter into paper-lined cups, filling generously, and bake 12 to 14 minutes, until a pick stuck in the center of one comes out clean.


Eight servings

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Baking time: 25 to 30 minutes

1 can (16 ounces) tart cherries, drained

1 can (16 ounces) apricot halves, drained and chopped

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon orange extract

1 can (30 ounces) ``lite`` cherry pie filling


1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup rolled oats, quick or old-fashioned

1/2 cup milk

1 egg or egg white, beaten

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a saucepan, stir drained cherries, diced apricots, cinnamon and orange extract into pie filling and heat the mixture.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the topping by stirring together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter until well distributed (may be done in a food processor), then stir in the oats, milk and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened.

3. When the fruit is steaming hot, transfer to a 11- by 8-inch baking dish or a 2-quart casserole and drop spoonfuls of topping over the surface. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until topping is light golden brown. Serve warm.