A delicious, nutritious alternative to muffins with only 2 grams of sugar per serving! Gluten-free too.
Cranberry Pepita Oatmeal Cups are a perfect on-the-go breakfast. They’re portable, more nutritious than a typical muffin, and insanely delicious. When I first started seeing recipes for oatmeal cups appearing throughout the food blogosphere I thought “cup” was just another way of saying “muffin”, but once I tried oatmeal cups I realized that they are quite different from muffins and very deserving of their own name.
Oatmeal cups differ from muffins in two important ways. First, the main ingredient in muffins is some type of flour, derived from a ground grain, nut, or bean, versus oatmeal cups, where rolled oats are the stand-in for flour. Second, muffins usually contain more sugar than oatmeal cups. Cranberry Pepita Oatmeal Cups have only 2 grams of sugar per serving! This is because, aside from the small amount of sugar in the dried cranberries, they are sweetened with a mere 2 tablespoons of maple syrup.
When you break open the center of a Cranberry Pepita Oatmeal Cup you can clearly see some of the individual ingredients, and when you take a bite you will feel and taste all the nutritious grains and seeds. The texture is much less cake-like than a muffin, with a more rustic and earthy mouthfeel.
Anything that you would normally spread on a muffin will taste great on Cranberry Pepita Oatmeal Cups. I like mine with melted butter, but jam and yogurt are also great options. Regardless of what you decide to serve them with, Cranberry Pepita Oatmeal Cups will taste awesome and, with 10 grams of protein, 9 grams of fiber, and a good dose of healthy fats, you’ll feel nourished and satisfied until your next meal.
- 3 cups (10 ounces) gluten-free, rolled oats
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- ½ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
- ⅔ cup dried cranberries (unsweetened or reduced sugar)
- 2 eggs or flax egg replacer (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1½ cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper muffin liners.
- Thoroughly whisk together the oats, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, chia seeds, pepitas, and cranberries in a medium bowl.
- Add the eggs, maple syrup, butter, and almond milk and mix until smooth.
- Divide the batter among the muffin cups.
- Bake for 30 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven.
- Store the oatmeal cups, tightly wrapped, at room temperature for up to 5 day or freeze.
For egg free oatmeal cups use a flax egg replacer. For the equivalent of 2 eggs combine 2 Tablespoons of ground flaxmeal with 6 Tablespoons of water. Let sit for 5 minutes before proceeding with the recipe as written.
Sweetened dried cranberries can be used in this recipe but it will increase the sugar content to 5 grams per serving.
LIKE THIS RECIPE? PIN IT FOR LATER!
4 Comments on Cranberry Pepita Oatmeal Cups