Coconut Ginger Lime Oatmeal Muffins

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, however, it seems that Summer is starting to wind down (at least in my area).  I know that there is still time for it to come back strong, but while it's cooler I'm taking advantage of this opportunity to bake.  I miss baking.  Call me a wimp, but I just cannot handle baking in the heat of Summer.  I hope to make up for it now.  This is the third baked good I made in the past 2 weeks.  Unfortunately my first two won't be posted here, at least not until I can figure out what went wrong.

These muffins came about because I started straying from eating a good breakfast.  This is a problem; I need good fuel for brain power throughout the morning.  So early one morning I searched for a muffin recipe.  After realizing all the recipes I was finding called for milk, which I was out of, I almost lost hope.  However, I thought I must have a can of coconut milk in the pantry.  That would work, right?  The reviews of this basic oatmeal muffin recipe lead me to believe that indeed it should adapt well.

Now I had to think about how to flavor them.  What compliments coconut?  I had fresh strawberries and peaches, frozen blueberries, black raspberries and bananas, but none of these sounded right.  I wanted something a bit more tropical.  Lime would work, but that didn't seem like enough, so I took a chance on adding ginger.

The aroma while these baked was heavenly!  The flavors complimented each other really well.  These were a great breakfast option for me, full of good-for-you ingredients.  I will caution you that these are not sweet, but I hope that doesn't stop you from giving them a try.

I made several changes to the recipe which are included here:

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup agave
• zest of 1 lime
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup dried shredded coconut 
• 1 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 425F degrees.

In a large measuring cup, measure coconut milk.  Add oatmeal and allow to soak 15 minutes.

In a small mixing bowl, combine egg, oil, agave and lime zest.  Add oatmeal mixture and combine.

In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt.  Add coconut and ginger.  Add wet mixture and stir until just combined.  Do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly among a 12 cup muffin tin.

Bake 20-25 minutes (mine came out at 20 minutes) until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Makes 12 muffins.