Oatmeal Blackberry Muffins : Ugly Duckling Bakery

Name: Oatmeal Blackberry Muffins
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 1 cup (125 grams or 4.4 ounces) bleached, all-purpose flour; ¾ cup (80 grams or 2.8 ounces) whole wheat flour; ½ cup (110 grams or 3.9 ounces) brown sugar; 1½ teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 cup cooked oatmeal; ½ cup milk; ½ cup (113 grams or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted (plus more for greasing the tin); 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur or vanilla; 1 cup blackberries, chopped in half or quarters if larger

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These oatmeal blackberry muffins are soft and moist, with big chunks of fresh blackberries and a cupful of cooked oatmeal. The muffins seem almost, well, good for you. Enjoy them for breakfast or a snack with only the tiniest bit of guilt.

This recipe is what happens when a neighbor invites you over to pick pounds of ripe blackberries. Gotta love those sorts of neighbors.

Create your own recipes using classic baking ratios!

Feel free to skip this section if you’ve already read about my love for baking ratios! It has been really freeing to take these ratios and turn them into something unique.

In Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, Michael Ruhlman says that recipes for quick breads and muffins can be developed using the ratio (by weight):
2 parts (8 ounces) flour
2 parts (8 ounces) liquid
1 part (4 ounces) eggs. That’s two large eggs.
1 part (4 ounces) butter. That’s equivalent to eight tablespoons or one standard stick of butter.

You can see examples of this ratio in my blackberry lemon loaf cake, kale and cheese quickbread, or my sourdough discard apple muffins or spinach and feta muffins.

But the ratios don’t stop there. You can check out other ratios in these lemon lavender shortbread cookies and orange poppy seed waffles.

Tips and tricks for this recipe

You might notice that this recipe uses a slightly reduced amount of milk from Ruhlman’s formula. That’s because the blackberries release a ton of liquid. Unfortunately, I don’t have a similar solution for how to get rid of all of the seeds!

a one cup measuring cup full of blackberries.

Making oatmeal

This recipe uses rolled oats vs. instant. Instant oats are pre-cooked and processed so they have less fiber and cook more quickly when you want a bowl of oatmeal. Instant oats are okay to use in a pinch.

If you’re only making oatmeal for this recipe, bring a cup of water to boil in a small pot. Add a half cup of rolled oats and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until the water has been absorbed.

Or you can make extra to have a bowl for breakfast with a sliced banana, some extra blackberries, and a bit of brown sugar.

a one cup measuring cup full of cooked oatmeal.

Baking the muffins

You can use spoons or a quarter cup cookie scoop to scoop muffin batter into the prepared tin. Make sure the batter doesn’t completely fill the tin or they’ll overflow as they bake.

Every kitchen should have a set of cookie scoops for cookies and muffins. I also use the same quarter cup cookie scoop for making large meatballs, like for my spaghetti and meatballs.

Oatmeal blackberry muffins ready to be baked.

Substitutions and variations

If you want to sub in other berries, oatmeal raspberry muffins seem an obvious substitution. Blueberries and peaches as well. But if you want to sub a fruit that won’t release much liquid (apples, for example), you should increase the amount of milk in the recipe to the full ratio.

If you don’t have an orange liqueur in the house, you can always substitute vanilla. But if it’s because you’re concerned about the alcohol, they’re pretty much the same. Grand Marnier is 40% alcohol by volume. This is very similar to vanilla, which must be at least 35% alcohol by volume. I often substitute the same amount of a flavored liqueur or other liquor for vanilla because of how expensive vanilla has gotten recently.

FAQs about these oatmeal blackberry muffins

Do I have to weigh my ingredients?

No, you don’t have to do anything. But your cooking and baking will be more consistent if you weigh your ingredients, especially for baking.

Can I add something on top of these muffins to make them look fancier?

Sure. If you look closely at the picture of the muffins on the cooling rack, you can see that a certain someone added purple decorating sugar to the muffin in the lower left corner before baking.

Can I freeze these muffins?

Absolutely. Once they have cooled completely, put them in a freezer bag and squeeze out all the air. They’ll keep for 3 to 6 months.

oatmeal blackberry muffins cooling on a rack.

Related recipes

Check out some other uglyducklingbakery breakfast and brunch recipes:
blueberry chocolate chip muffins
orange and poppy seed muffins
orange zest French toast
peanut butter waffles
blackberry lemon bread
homemade granola (a great topping for yogurt)

Just looking for recipes for blackberries and other summer berries? I’ve got a blackberry curd tart or blackberry apple pie? These blackberry swirl cheesecake brownies are amazing. Or make a vodka sour with blackberry simple syrup.

Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.