Millet Muffins
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Every time I visit Philadelphia, I have high hopes of hitting up all of my favorite spots: La Colombe for a cappucino, Cafe Lutecia for a croissant, Ding Ho for fresh rice noodles, Reading Terminal Market for a soft pretzel, Fork for brioche French toast and Metropolitan Bakery for a millet muffin.
But on a recent overnight visit I had time for neither a coffee nor a croissant, and I returned home craving all of my favorite carbs but most of all a brown-sugar, millet-studded muffin.
Having tried unsuccessfully in the past to make these muffins at home, I knew I had my work cut out for me. And to be polite to you, I’ll spare you the details of all of the various rounds and focus on the end product: a one-bowl, hand-mixed batter, made with oil not butter, a mix of brown sugar and white, buttermilk, and an astonishing amount of oats and millet, a seed that offers a delightful crunch and nutty flavor.
The inspiration for the makeup of this batter comes from Tazzaria’s oatmeal muffin, an all-time favorite and one that happens to be, as far as muffins go, on the healthy side.
In the end, the millet muffins here resemble Metropolitan’s mostly by way of the ratio of millet in each bite: a full cup of raw millet goes into a standard 12-cup recipe.
If you’ve never experienced a baked good loaded with millet, you’ll likely be suspicious. I promise you, however, one bite of these seedy muffins will convince you that these teensy pearls should be relegated to the birds no more. Happy Baking!
Millet Notes
- Where to buy? Millet can be hard to come by if you don’t live near a health food market or a Whole Foods or something of the like, and it is often located in the bulk section of these places.
- Gluten Free. Millet is gluten free, and because oats (when noted) are also gluten free, this recipe can easily be made gluten free: just substitute one cup of your favorite gluten-free flour mix (homemade or otherwise: I’ve had success with Hodgson Mill and C4C) for the one cup of flour and be sure to use gluten-free oats
If you find yourself without muffin liners, you can make them out of parchment paper. Filling these liners is easier if you make them before you mix up your batter and weigh them down with a tomato or anything that fits in the cup:
Millet Muffins
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
Description
Inspired by this recipe in Bon Appetit
Original recipe hails from Tazzaria
Notes:
• If you don’t have millet, make these oatmeal muffins, the recipe that inspired this one and one of my all-time favorites.
• This muffin batter can be made ahead of time and baked off as you wish: the muffins taste as good on day 8 as on day 1.
• If you do want to bake off the whole recipe in one go, use a quarter cup measuring cup to fill your standard pan. You’ll have some leftover batter, likely enough for 1 jumbo muffin or a few small muffins. Try to refrain from dividing that leftover batter among the filled cups — the muffins bake more evenly when they are not over filled, and you can always bake off the remaining batter in a greased or lined ramekin.
• You can make your own liners by cutting sheets of parchment paper approximately into 5×5-inch squares. It’s kind of a pain to do this, but they look pretty, and they work remarkably well. As noted in the photo above, it’s helpful to make the liners before you mix up the batter and to weigh down each one with anything that will fill in the cup. I also love these liners.
Ingredients
- 2 1/3 cups (230g) quick-cooking oats*
- 1 cup (136g) all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour if you are making gluten-free muffins
- 1/2 cup (114g) packed, dark brown sugar (light would probably be just fine)
- 1/2 cup (116g) sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup millet
- 1/3 cup boiling water
*I have the best results using the 1-minute Quaker Oats but rolled oats work just fine, too. And although I haven’t tried this, I bet you could quickly pulse rolled oats in a food processor to make them behave more like quick-cooking oats. If you want to make gluten-free muffins, make sure to buy gluten-free oats.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a standard muffin pan (12-cup) with nonstick spray or line them with paper muffin liners. Whisk oats, flour, sugars, baking soda and salt together. Add buttermilk, oil, egg, vanilla and millet. Whisk to blend. Stir in 1/3 cup boiling water and let stand 5 minutes. Batter will be on the wet side. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, filling each one no more than 3/4 full.
- Bake muffins until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 (maybe as many as five minutes longer) minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Turn muffins out onto rack; cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Muffin
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: millet, muffin, breakfast, healthy
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88 Comments on “Millet Muffins”
The original recipe is here: https://www.starchefs.com/features/mothers_day/1998/html/recipe_02.shtml I’m wondering if you’ve tried it?
I actually did! And I have the cookbook. I remember them coming out a little dry and not as good as the ones from the bakery, but I should give them another go with a few adjustments — maybe decrease the flour and up the butter?
Thanks so much for the recipe. I live in Philly, and Metropolitan’s Millet Muffins were one of my favorite things until I was diagnosed with Celiac disease in 2017. Cannot wait to make these!
Those muffins were my favorite, too! Sorry to hear about celiac 😩😩😩 I hope you are finding nourishing treats!
Thank you SO MUCH for this!!! I am obsessed with Metropolitan millet muffins! I even bought a little millet today in hopes of finding a recipe. Can’t wait to try this!!
One question, can I sub grapeseed oil for canola?
★★★★★
Yes, absolutely re grapeseed oil (my favorite, actually) for canola oil.
Note: these aren’t a complete mimic of the Metropolitan recipe. I tried the recipe in the book, and I didn’t love it, so I adapted a favorite muffin recipe to include millet. But I love these anyway!! Hope you do, too.
HI! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I live in Philly and am obsessed with these muffins. I get them all the time! So I was thrilled to find this. I have made it twice so far. The second time, I ground up the oats to a more flour like consistency so they weren’t as “oatmealy” tasting, and they are SO much like the originals but more moist (yay!). This is a major keeper recipe for me!
★★★★★
My muffins did not taste of oatmeal but of sugar. Don’t pack the brown sugar when you measure it, and use somewhat less white and dark brown sugar. If you don’t reduce the sugar (white and dark brown), don’t serve these muffins with sweetened preserves.
Use somewhat less kosher salt. Kosher salt is powerful and tends to show up unexpectedly and rather unpleasantly in confections like these.
Follow the directions, and remove the muffins from the tins after baking, or they will continue to bake. Don’t bake the muffins on the middle shelf of your conventional oven for 30 minutes or more, or they will be somewhat tough, dense, and dry, if not too dark. Try 25-27 minutes in a preheated oven, and remove from the tins after 10-13 minutes if they are firm. The toasted millet may not add to the flavor, but it does add compelling crunch.
I’ll try again, though they are labor-intensive and expensive, as these should be great with coffee for breakfast, and aside from all the sugar, they’re nutritious. All opinions are subjective. My husband loved his as he found it in the fridge.
★★★★
According to Dr. Andrew Weil, “Those with thyroid disease should not consume millet in large quantities as it is a mild thyroid peroxidase inhibitor. It will keep in the pantry for two months, or four to six months in the refrigerator or freezer.”
Soaking is advised for those who don’t like the aftertaste as the pre-milled grains aren’t washed. I have no idea how soaked grains can be successfully toasted or just used in this recipe. The aftertaste bothered me, and the muffins gave me indigestion. I also have a thyroid disorder, which is treated with a man-made thyroid hormone, so goitrogenic foods are not advised. They may alter your TSH value. As much as I liked the potential of these muffins, assuming less sugar used, I would, regretfully, avoid this recipe and millet.
★★★
Can fruit be added? Cut up apples? Berries? Pears?’’
And freezable, I assume?
Sure! Diced apples would be delicious! Or any fruit you like. Yes, definitely freezable.
I make these and add orange zest and cardamom–soo good.
★★★★
Yay! And Yum!
Great recipe!
Wife & kids really enjoyed them…loved the crunch 😁
Thanks Alexandra!
Jeff
★★★★★
So great to hear this, Jeff!
The millet makes these addictive. I swapped whole wheat pastry flour for the white flour, coconut oil for the oil, and used 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar and skipped the white sugar and found it just the right sweetness. Also baked it in a square cake pan for 27 minutes instead of making individual muffins, just the slightest bit easier and lazier.
So smart! It becomes kind of a snacking cake. I love this idea.
I used to sell Metropolitan millet muffins from my store, these are as close to that recipe as I have ever tasted. They are delicious!! Absolutely love this recipe! Thanks for sharing.
★★★★★
Wonderful to hear this, Nancy! I loved those Metropolitan muffins so, so much. Thanks for writing.
I don’t see mention of adding the millet in this recipe… and when I click on your other pay muffin recipe it has the same amount of ingredients minus the millet, so were the oats supposed to be in this recipe also? Or was the millet substituting for the oats here?
Hi Kirstie! You add the millet in step 1: “Add buttermilk, oil, egg, vanilla and millet.” The oats should be included in this recipe.
I finally made these today and forgot to add the brown sugar. Delighted to say they still tasted marvelous and had a real natural sweetness all their own. With jam I think even sugar fiends might be satisfied, but I saw no need to add anything. I just need to stop myself from gorging.
★★★★★
So great to hear this, Sandra! I find more and more with muffin recipes, the sugar can be cut by half without adverse effects. Thanks so much for writing and sharing!
I’ve been hunting for Millet so I could make these for a second time as well as my favorite granola of yours with millet. Every bit as delicious as I remembered! Love the slight crunch of the millet!
★★★★★
So nice to hear this, Debbie! I haven’t made these muffins in ages, but they’re one of my favorites. Love the crunch, too. Thanks for writing!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I was looking for a good recipe to modify so I could use up some sourdough discard. This was perfect!! Replaced a portion of liquid and flour with the discard, and substituted soy milk/acv for the buttermilk. Devoured one gorgeous muffin right out of the oven. This is going to be on the regulars list❤️
★★★★★
Oh Yay! So great to hear this, Donna. Love that you were able to use up some of your sourdough discard here, too… that’s the best feeling!
Does the millet go in raw or cooked/soaked in some way? There is ** by the millet ingredient, but I don’t see where it leads to. Thanks!
Raw! I just removed the ** … thank you for catching that! I think the original recipe called for toasting the milled in the oven for 30 minutes or so, which I did a few times and then never did again bc it was a pain and it didn’t really make a difference.