Lemon Cranberry Muffins

A good friend of mine suggested I bake lemon cranberry muffins this week. Unfortunately, she didn't have a recipe but thought the combination would work well together, and I have to agree with her. I found a recipe for Tim Horton's Style Lemon Cranberry Muffins. Apparently Tim Hortons is a Dunkin Donuts type shop that is popular in Canada and other places no one really wants to live. The recipe is very heavy on oats and sparing with flour. I think I'd prefer a more cake-like muffin if I were to use this recipe again and would use less oats and more flour. Also, the recipe called for egg beaters but I used real eggs instead. Curiously, the second batch came out much better than the first. This could be down to the baking powder having time to activate. Admittedly, I was having trouble controlling the temperature on my gas oven so that may have lead to poor showing. In an abundance of caution, I would let the batter sit 10 minutes before baking.


Ingredients
• 3 cups oats
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cranberries, rough chopped
• 1 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix oats, flour, baking powder, salt and chopped cranberries in one bowl; set aside.
3. In second bowl mix yogurt, oil, brown sugar, Egg Beaters, lemon peel, cinnamon and vanilla together. Fold all ingredients together in one bowl. Place batter into muffin tins (nonstick or lined with paper liners).
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes.
5. Allow to cool on wire rack out of the tins.