Muffins Archives - Eat Simply, Eat Well

Sweet Potato and Walnut Muffins

October 27, 2015 by aplough

Move over, pumpkin, there is a new veggie in town, ready to land in all things sweet and savory: the Sweet Potato.

Deep orange in color, velvety soft when roasted and naturally sweet, this root vegetable pairs nicely in your quick breads and muffins to add a nutritious dose to your afternoon snack or take-away breakfast. I’ve paired the sweet potato here with applesauce, Indian sugar, whole wheat flour and walnuts for a satisfying and healthy snack that you can take with you anywhere, serve to hungry kids as an afternoon snack, or offer up to company along with a cup of coffee or tea. Fragrant with warm spices: cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and clove, this is a muffin that lets you know Fall is firmly and clearly here, right in front of you.

Pack a few of these in your bag, along with a thermos filled with your hot beverage of choice, and head outside to capture the last rays of sunshine as they beam through the colorful autumn leaves overhead, and onto the piles of fallen color crunching beneath your feet on the trails below. This is a magical time of year, right now, when the colors are at their peak and time seems suspended for just a brief, fleeting moment. Go on – make these muffins and get outside!

Sweet Potatoes are a wonder of the root vegetable world – colorful and nutritious. They have:

high doses of beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A in your body – excellent source
very good source of vitamin C, manganese, pantothenic acid and vitamin B6
good source of phosphorus, potassium, vitamins B1, B2 and B3, biotin
good source of fiber

Eating sweet potatoes with good quality oil helps your body to absorb the vitamin A, so don’t be afraid of the olive oil in this recipe, or of good fats in general. High quality fats do the body good!

Sweet Potato and Walnut Muffins

2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup/ 130 g Indian sugar or coconut sugar
1/2 cup / 1 dl + 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or other high quality, mild, vegetable oil
1/3 cup / 3/4 dl unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup / 60 ml water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups / 4 dl packed grated raw sweet potato (about half of one large sweet potato
2 cups / 240 g whole wheat flour (sub in all-purpose gluten-free flour if you can’t eat gluten)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, applesauce, water and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Add the grated sweet potato and stir to combine.

In a separate, large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients and stir until the flour is mixed in. Add the walnuts and stir to combine.

Divide the mixture evenly between 12 lined muffin cups. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until puffed, golden brown, and a toothpick or thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

Raspberry Cacao Nib Muffins

March 31, 2015 by aplough

Anybody out there need another muffin recipe? Anybody? Yeah, me too.

I love muffins. They are a perfect quick breakfast or afternoon snack. I take them on hikes and day trips and road trips. I make a little extra and freeze them for later. They travel well and taste great and are quick to make.

These muffins are healthy, too. Combining whole wheat flour and almond flour with kefir and eggs to create a nice, tender muffin, they are then packed with raspberries and cacao nibs so that the flavor really sings to you as you happily eat your way on down to the very bottom edge of the muffin wrapper.

If you’re not yet acquainted with cacao nibs, these are something worth trying out. Packed with antioxidants, fiber, magnesium and iron, these are little nuggets are really good for you. Added to the list of other healthy ingredients in these muffins, you’ll find these give you a nice energy boost just when you need it.

A few notes on the ingredients:

if you don’t have kefir, use buttermilk or plain yogurt
if you need this to be gluten-free, use buckwheat flour instead of whole wheat flour
if you don’t have cacao nibs, you can use chopped chocolate – though the flavor will be a bit different and you won’t have the nice crunch the cacao nibs provide. They are worth seeking out at your health food store
Frozen raspberries work best here (I used wild raspberries from last summer). If you use fresh raspberries, fold them into the batter carefully so they don’t get too smashed.

You know you want these! So go on and get your oven warming and your bowls out: you’ll have fresh muffins on the table in under an hour.

Raspberry Cacao Nib Muffins

Preheat your oven to 190°C/375°F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with muffin cup liners.

In a large bowl whisk together:
1 cup/140g/2.5 dl whole wheat flour
3/4 cup/75g/1.25 dl almond flour
1/2 cup/1dl Indian sugar or coconut sugar (or use brown sugar in a pinch)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Maldon salt or 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

In a small bowl whisk together:
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup Kefir (or use buttermilk or plain yogurt)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup mild oil like sunflower or avocado

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until nearly all traces of flour are gone. Add:

1 cup raspberries, preferably frozen
1/4 cup cacao nibs

Stir to incorporate the raspberries and cacao nibs into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Place the muffins in the oven and bake 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

Did you like them? Leave me a comment below and share this recipe with friends!

Blackcurrant Bran Muffins with Lemon & Cardamom

April 20, 2012 by aplough

We enjoyed the Bilberry Muffins so much, that I thought I’d try a variation on the theme and use up some of the black currants in my freezer. Black currants are something I’d never tasted nor heard of except related to cassis syrup (syrup made from black currants and commonly used in liquor), but in Finland most people who have a garden will also have several black currant bushes as well (occasionally they’ll grow red currants and white currants as well, but these are less common). The plump, black berries are ready in mid to late August depending on where you are in Finland, and they have sweet/tart flavor that to me is reminiscent of both cinnamon and anise. I made a black currant, lemon & star anise jam the other day to test the theory of how well the black currants would go with those spices, and it was lovely – though perhaps next time I’d use a little less lemon. Maybe I’ll post that jam here at a later date.

Black currant jam is most typically served with meats – usually chicken. JJ is looking forward to pairing my black currant jam with a Chicken Curry one of these days, and I’m looking forward to trying it! I tried the jam with these muffins, though, with a small spoonful of plain yogurt, and I really liked the extra burst of blackcurrant flavor.

But I wanted to try black currants for something that didn’t include meat. I also wanted a muffin that was dense, not too sweet – and healthy enough to eat without guilt for breakfast. If you like a sweeter muffin, you’ll want to increase the sugar to 3/4, though I don’t think they need it. The lemon balances the flavor of the black currants, and the cardamom is a very subtle but welcome addition, that you notice only after the second or third bite. The buttermilk makes these nice & moist – if you don’t have it you can substitute a cup of runny plain yogurt or milk mixed with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.

If you don’t have black currants, try these with blackberries. I think the lemon & cardamom would go well with them also. These freeze well, and you can keep them in an airtight container on the countertop to enjoy for up to 4 days.

Black Currant Bran Muffins with Lemon & Cardamom

Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C

In a large bowl combine:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat bran (you could also use whole wheat or oatmeal if you don’t have wheat bran)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom

In a separate bowl whisk together:
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons of olive oil
zest of one lemon

Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Do not over mix. Add:

1 1/2 cups frozen blackcurrants (frozen blackberries would be excellent here as well)

Mix until the berries are distributed throughout. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners and divide the batter evenly among the liners. Bake for 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before eating.

Makes 12 muffins.