Chocolate Chip Oat Bran Muffins (Garden Dispatch: 110 Degrees)

Yes. I baked. Out of necessity. Out of the need for comfort, for kitchen time, for sanity . . . for chocolate. It was not a difficult decision for me. This baking moment. I wanted to bake to heal. 

What's wonderful about being a cookbook lover is that in the midst of all that is awful in the world right now, I need only enter the small space that is my kitchen, place a hand on the spine of a book and therein lies emotional recovery. I chose the path of chocolate for mine.

I sit here now--re-hydrating--after having ventured outside (ever-so-briefly!) to get a daylight photo of said muffins--and a few other shots of what remains of my garden. While, yes, it was during an unrelenting heat index of over 110 degrees that I'd decided I needed this photo of my chocolate muffins AND garden. I now feel like I might have overdone it a bit. A little too hot, perhaps. It will pass. Just my electrolytes talking.  

Recently, I had the pleasure of purchasing The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl Day and Griffith Day. I adore it! Cheryl was on Paula Deen's, Best Dishes. I happened to catch the episode this past weekend while running on the treadmill. (Of course I watch Food Network when I run!) 

 I love anyone who bakes for a living. I read the Back in The Day cookbook from cover-to-cover. Because, to be honest, when I saw it hit the bestseller list under the "cookbook" category on Amazon (which I check obsessively)--I was, well. . . I was like--WHO are those two people and WHY do they look so dang happy?  

I adapted Cheryl's recipe for her Mocha Oatmeal Muffins and renamed mine because I actually modified her recipe quite a bit. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful recipe to start with and I am oh-so-happy with both my purchase and with these muffins. 

Just a quick tour of what remains of our yard. I'll try not to cry.

This is the hill up to the second level of my garden patch. Nothing but solid packed clay. S-O-L-I-D clay. It will take weeks of rain to undo the damage from this drought. The Mississippi River in St. Louis is receding. Last I heard, it was at two feet. . . two feet! At the recorded lowest, the river was at minus six feet, back in early 1940s, I believe. I have a link to the Drought Monitor page here. This is like nothing I've ever lived through in my Almost Fifty years. I know I keep talking about it. And I know that talking about it won't make it go away--but if you live somewhere with rain and it's only in the nineties--well, count your blessings.  

I've been waking early. Really early. Dr. Thyme and I are both so exhausted at the end of the day with this heat, we've been hitting the hay around nine. I read for a bit before I nod off. I get maybe two pages into my book (I'm reading Toni Morrison's book, Home--love it!) and I am out like a light. As soon as the sun peeks through the drapes, I am up again--wide awake. After I take care of the kids, I head outside. It's all I can do to not turn right around and throw my hands in the air. Instead, it's me, my PJs, the hose and a cup of coffee.The worst summer of my life. One. Day. At. A. Time.

View from the porch--looking over my herb beds. Gardening with raised beds helps in the watering department.  

There are a few happy moments in my garden though. Like this one. A PERFECT tomato. 

For perfect salsa-making. 

But I digress.

Chocolate Chip Oat Bran Muffins

*Adapted from, The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (*use all-purpose if you don't have any of this on hand)

1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa

1 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/4 cup quick cooking oats

2 teaspoons ground flax seeds

1 tablespoon bran (I used Bob's Red Mill)

4 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 6 tablespoons water 

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk mixed with 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar (for "buttermilk")

6 oz. instant decaf. coffee prepared (I used Folger's packets)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon chocolate extract (*optional)

1 cup chocolate chips

*extra whole oats for topping the muffins before baking

Preheat oven to 350. Spray two large (or Texas-sized) muffin tins with nonstick spray. Set aside. In a small bowl, prepare your buttermilk mixture with 1 cup of unsweetened coconut milk mixed with 2 teaspoons of vinegar and set aside. Prepare your "coffee" if you don't have any made. (I keep instant coffee packets on hand for moments like this.) In a large bowl, add all dry ingredients--except for chips. Whisk the dry stuff together. In a medium bowl, add canola oil, "buttermilk", egg-replacer and extracts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon until all the dry ingredients are wet. Fold in the chocolate chips. Fill the muffin cups with the batter--a little over half full worked for me. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with rolled oats. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven when a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffins comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in the pan for ten minutes. Carefully remove the muffins from the tin, then cool the remaining time on a cooling rack. Store in airtight container or a cake keeper. If you won't be eating them ALL in one setting, they store well in the freezer in a freezer bag--for noshing any time!