These date and oat muffins are super easy to make and taste absolutely fantastic! If you’re a fan of sticky toffee pudding or date squares, you’ll love these breakfast muffins made with rolled oats, wholemeal flour, buttermilk, and chopped dates.
Easy date & oat breakfast muffins
If you’re looking for something a little different for a breakfast muffin, you’ve come to the right place!
I recently stumbled across this recipe in an old Canadian notebook one of my grandmothers sent me some years ago. It was a little yellow stapled-together, typed out on a typewriter and photocopied compilation entitled ‘Muffin Time!’, created by Lindel Distributors with the help of their friends.
I have no idea who Lindel Distributors were or even which side of Canada they came from, but let me tell you, it’s a treasure trove of muffin recipes!
These muffins are remarkably easy to make, and they’re deliciously moist and flavoursome. Despite the brown sugar content, and the natural sugars in the dates, they’re almost savoury in taste.
I’ve slightly adapted the original recipe which called for wholemeal flour only – I’ve used equal parts wholemeal and plain/all-purpose flour. I’ve also sprinkled the muffin batter with a little rolled oats before baking, for decoration.
Serve with a generous slab of butter and a little jam for a leisurely breakfast.
What you’ll need
- rolled oats
- buttermilk – or sour milk
- whole wheat flour
- plain flour
- baking soda
- baking powder
- salt
- brown sugar
- dates
- egg
- butter
How to make date and oat muffins
- Mix oats and buttermilk in a bowl and set aside to soak.
- Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar and dates in a bowl.
- Beat the egg and melt the butter, and add to the oat mixture.
- Stir the oat mixture into the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Spoon into a prepared muffin tin.
- Bake in a preheated 190 °C/ 400 °F oven for 20 minutes.
Tips for making these easy breakfast muffins
- use paper muffin cases or grease your muffin tin well. Alternatively, silicone muffin pans are fabulously non-stick.
- if you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute an equal quantity of full-fat milk, but add two teaspoonfuls of vinegar to sour it.
- use ordinary dried cooking dates for this recipe – not those fancy Medjool ones.
- make them even healthier by using 100% wholemeal flour instead of half wholemeal and half white.
- these muffins freeze well – make a batch at the weekend and defrost for breakfast at a later date!
Recipe Difficulty Levels
Easy
Requires basic cooking skills and ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen.
Moderate
Requires more experience, preparation and/or cooking time. You may have to source special ingredients.
Challenging
Recipes requiring more advanced skills and experience and maybe some special equipment.
Date and Oat Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
- 110 grams porridge oats
- 225 ml buttermilk see notes
- 75 grams wholemeal flour
- 75 grams plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 0.5 tsp Shetland sea salt
- 130 grams brown sugar
- 150 grams pitted dates chopped
- 1 large free range egg
- 50 grams butter melted
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190 °C/ 400 °F and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases, or grease well.
- Combine 110 grams porridge oats and 225 ml buttermilk in a small bowl and set aside.
- Combine 75 grams wholemeal flour, 75 grams plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 0.5 tsp Shetland sea salt in a bowl.
- Stir in 130 grams brown sugar and 150 grams pitted dates, chopped, making sure all the pieces of dates are separated and covered in flour.
- Beat 1 large free range egg, melt 50 grams butter and add to the oat mixture.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry just until everything is combined. Don’t overmix.
- Spoon into the prepared baking tin – each muffin cup should be about 3/4 full. Sprinkle with a little more rolled oats for decoration, if desired.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- If you don’t have buttermilk, use full-fat milk and add two teaspoonfuls of vinegar to it to make it sour.
Nutrition
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Hi ..Elizabeth..
I made a date and oat loaf with your muffin recipe. Added an extra egg because I thought that would give the loaf a stronger crumb so I can slice it.
It was so good…Thanks a lot for the great recipe.
Oh wow, that’s a super idea! I’m so glad it worked for you too – I’ll have to try that myself! Thanks for your lovely comment, and happy baking!
Hi Elizabeth
I have made your date and oat muffin recipe twice, the first time using the buttermilk substitute and the second time using buttermilk, the real deal. What a difference buttermilk makes! The result the second time was sensational. This recipe has now become my favourite date muffin recipe, shadowing my previous favourite..
Oh I’m so glad you like the recipe! Buttermilk really does make a big difference, doesn’t it. 🙂
I’ve had a lot more free time on my hands recently and have been trying to get into baking. These look delicious and like they wouldn’t be too difficult to make!
I love to find new muffin recipes and these sound wonderful. Thank you for putting WW sp on too. I can make a batch, freeze and have one for my breakfast still sticking to my WW plan.
Wow that is some seriously lovely and delicious looking muffin! I really love these especially with coffee 😉
I think these look healthy, and we all want healthy cake don’t we?
Since my son has been home from uni he is eating me out of house and home. This recipe looks brilliant for healthy muffins so I am going to try them with these
Oh man, your description of these beauties made my mouth water! Gorgeous recipe, will be making it this weekend
What a lovely sounding recipe – I love using dates in baking. Thanks for linking to my carrot muffins as well.