Nutty Granola Muffins

It is a fair bet that when I am sent new products to review, I will, if at all possible, attempt to make muffins using said product.     The Jordans  Super Nutty Granola was no exception.

The granola is good stuff, crunchy, not too clumpy, and absolutely packed with enough nuts to delight several families of squirrels.  I like Jordans as a brand, they use British oats which are “conservation grade” where the farmers are paid a premium to keep 10% of their land as nature friendly habitats.

Nutty Granola Muffins

Recipe: Nutty Granola Muffins

Makes 6

“Dry” Ingredients
4 ½ oz plain flour
1 ½ oz  sugar
4oz Nutty Granola – I used Jordans
1tsp baking powder
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
4oz milk (soy or dairy)
2oz  sunflower oil
1 tsp honey
Dash vanilla essence

Some more granola

Method
Whisk the oil, milk and honey mixture with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).  Dollop the mixture into your usual muffin pan, sprinkle each muffin with a little more granola.   Bake at GM5/190C/375F  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

Click for a printable recipe Nutty Granola Muffins

Jordan’s Super Nutty Granola is available from Waitrose, Tesco and Asda stores nationwide at an RRP of £3.99

Thank you to Jordans for my review sample.

Muffins are pretty much my catch all emergency bake, and a usual weekend breakfast.    My standard muffin is egg free; a shout for fewer ingredients, and to mark my mantra of “If you cannot afford free range then leave it out”.    This is usually shouted at the telly during a cooking programme, when Hugh, Jamie or whoever, are telling us to buy free range chicken and eggs, but missing the point that some people simply cannot afford to.     You try and persuade a parent on a low income that they should not buy their 15 eggs for £1, in favour of free range at 5 or more times the price.   I suspect that their prime motivation is to feed their families rather than towards animal welfare.    

Personally I think that chefs and cooking programmes are all missing a trick and maybe they should focus on encouraging people to consume fewer animal products, and to stop regarding meat, eggs and diary as a cheap and daily source of food.   I am sure it would be altogether better for many peoples’ health, wallets and the environment.   I do not think it is wrong to eat meat, eggs and diary, but I know I feel a whole heap healthier when I eat less of them.   Whether this actually is because I am eating less animal products, or by the fact that by not eating them I will be consuming more fruit and vegetables I do not know.   A bad vegetarian or vegan diet can be just as damaging as any other, imagine how grim you would feel if you ate nothing but chips for a week?

However I will get off my soap box for, despite my words, these muffins do contain egg, in the blood orange curd I baked into them.    I would think that marmalade or jam would make a good alternative should you wish to bake vegan.

I am sending these to the March Monthly Mingle, hosted by Sarah at Maison Cupcake.   These are not quite as pink as I had hoped, the batter was gloriously bright then faded in the oven.

Recipe: Think Pink! Blood Orange Juice and Curd Muffins (Makes 6)

“Dry” Ingredients
6oz plain flour
2oz  sugar
Zest 1/2 blood orange
1tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
6oz blood orange juice (top up to 6oz with milk if needed)
2oz  sunflower oil
Orange pulp from the juicer (remove the seeds)

6 tsp blood orange curd

(Optional) Sprinkling of oats

Method
Whisk the oil and juice mixture with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Divide half the mixture out into the muffin pan, add a blob of curd to each muffin and then top with the remainder of the batter, sprinkle with oats if using.  Bake at GM5/190C/375F  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

Eat warm from the oven, but beware of hot scalding curd!

Last year I was sent what seemed to be a vat of Total Greek Yoghurt to sample, and last week I was lucky enough to receive some samples of the latest addition to their range.   I seem to have developed into a routine of baking with review samples, and this was no exception.

The latest addition to Total’s range are the new split pots which combine natural fat-free Greek Yoghurt with a side portion of honey or fruit compote.

The yoghurt is made from just skimmed milk and live  yoghurt cultures to create a 100% natural Total yoghurt.   They come in 4 flavours; honey, blueberry, tropical fruit or strawberry.

TOTAL 0% split pots are the perfect fat-free indulgence, with no artificial sweeteners and no compromise on taste. Higher in protein than other yoghurts, these convenient little pots have less than 130 calories per pot (the one with honey which is 167 calories).

And they are delicious!  Mine rapidly disappeared from the fridge and I had to save some for cooking with.    Despite being fat free the yoghurt is rich, satisfying and creamy.     Al the compotes are delicious, packed with fruit and with plenty of texture.  My only criticism is that the bottom of the compote pot is slightly too small to easily scrape with my teaspoons.

What better to make with my Total than breakfast muffins?    After all muffins do seem to be my signature bake!  These are moist, well risen with the compote providing a delicious filling.

Blueberry & Yoghurt Muffins (Makes 4)

“Dry” Ingredients
4.5 oz plain flour (I used half spelt and half normal flour)
1.5 oz  sugar
Zest 1/2 Orange
1tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
Yoghurt from one Total split pot* (about 4oz)
1 egg
2oz milk (soy or regular)
2oz  sunflower oil

Blueberry compote from a Total spilt pot
1 tsp rolled oats

Pour the wet ingredients into a jug and whisk with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Divide half the mixture out into the muffin pan, add a blob of compote to each muffin and then top with the remainder of the batter and sprinkle with the oats.  Bake at GM5/190C/375F  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

Eat warm from the oven, but beware of hot scalding compote!

*I think that any plain yoghurt and jam would work well, you may need less milk with a thinner yoghurt.

TOTAL 0% split pot in Honey, Blueberry, Strawberry & Tropical Fruits are available in most Waitrose stores.  Retail recommended price £1.09 – or £0.79 as introductory offer until 1st April.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the spelling of yoghurt?   I think I prefer yogurt, which Wikipedia tells me is the more common spelling in the UK & US.   (Total use Yoghurt).  And it might be better not to get into the long vs short O pronunciation debate!

Thanks to Total for my free samples.

The splendid cupcake toppers were a present; made by the talented Kitty Ballistic.  Do have a look at her Artfire shop and get in touch if you would like to commission something

These muffins are both diary and egg free.  I often bake without eggs, as I believe there is no excuse to buy non free range.    I know free range are more expensive, so if cost is an issue simply go egg free when you bake.

Do use dairy milk and butter if you prefer.

Vegan Matcha Muffins (Makes 6)

For the muffins

“Dry” Ingredients
5.5 oz / 150g  plain flour
2.5 oz / 70g  sugar
1 tsp matcha powder
1 tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients

5.5oz  / 150g milk (I use soy)
2.5oz / 70g  sunflower oil

Whisk the oil and milk mixture with a fork.  Sift and then mix the dry ingredients, do not worry that they are a very pale green, the matcha goes dark green when you add the liquid.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Bake at GM5/190C/375F in your favourite muffin pan for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

For the buttercream

2oz / 60g  non diary spread
1 dsp milk
1 tsp  matcha powder
7 oz / 200g icing sugar

Beat the butter & milk together for a minute with an electric mixer, add the matcha and icing sugar and beat for at least 5 minutes until fluffy.   This frosting is lovely and soft.   If you want a firmer buttercream use a mix or half non diary shortening and half spread.   You may need to add a little more liquid or icing sugar.   Too much frosting cannot be a bad thing! Wait until the muffins are cold before frosting them.

Notes:

• Left over frosting is delicious frozen and then eaten directly from the tub with a spoon.
• Coconut matcha muffins are also delicious.   I use coconut milk powder substitute 1tbs in place of the same quantity of flour in the dry ingredients and substitute 2tbs of icing sugar for the same quantity of coconut milk powder in the frosting.
• I also need to make a spelt flour variation.  At a guess a mix of half spelt and half regular flour would work well.

I have another matcha recipe to publish next week and hope to get some basic cupcake / muffin decoration posts written soon.

I have been saving that appalling pun for an appropriate recipe, which seems to be some muffins that I made for breakfast this morning.

Today was my boyfriend’s family Christmas (his sister and her immediate family are abroad for Christmas), and there was a lunch party in Cheltenham to celebrate.  Due to the insanity of the cost of public transport in this country, it was considerable cheaper for us to hire a car and drive the round trip of just over 200 miles than travel by train or coach.   It is madness; surely something is very wrong here?    Ironically the major story on the evening Radio 4 news was on the success of the UN climate change talks in Cancun, how much less would we have contributed to global warming had we been travelling by public transport?

I am currently overloaded with limes, I needed to get one for recipe testing for Vanessa for her forthcoming book Prepped, and as around 30 were on offer for £1 in the market I bought in bulk.    I think I had thought that I could make the Miele Microwave Curd with the spare ones, but do not currently have the fridge space to store it.

These muffins are zesty and refreshing, just the thing to wake you up in the morning, and to remind you of sunnier, warmer days.    I always make my muffins in a silicon tray, they never seem to stick.  If you are using a non flexible tin I would use liners as the lemon curd can be quite if it seeps out of the batter.  I usually make egg free muffins, I prefer the taste and it makes it easier to scale the amount of ingredients up or down this morning I made slightly more batter than usual to set us up for the journey.

Cor Limey!  Citrus Curdy Muffins (Makes 6)

“Dry” Ingredients
6oz plain flour
2oz  sugar
Zest 1 lemon
1tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
6oz milk (soy or regular)
2oz  sunflower oil

6 tsp lemon curd

Whisk the oil and milk mixture with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Divide half the mixture out into the muffin pan, add a blob of lemon curd to each muffin and then top with the remainder of the batter.  Bake at GM5/190C/375F  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

Eat warm from the oven, but beware of hot scalding curd!

I am happy to say that I am about to have a giveaway of some lovely liquid chocolate from Hotel Chocolat.   But in the interests of my readers I feel that that it is only fair that I extensively test the product before I post the giveaway, and give your some ideas of what to use it for.  Liquid chocolate as a hot drink is lovely, but liquid chocolate in baked goods is even better!   Muffins are one of the Fuss Free Flavours signature recipes so a muffin using the liquid chocolate it had to be!

There is one banana in 3 of these muffins, so that is one of your five a day sorted.   They are also vegan* so contain no cholesterol.  Positively healthy.   In the interests of my blog I need to go and make another batch as I really need to get better photos.    These were fantastic,  chocolate and banana are perfect partners, the liquid chocolate and the dark chocolate drops are rich and not too sweet.    I am pondering if I could make a quintuple chocolate banana muffin with chocolate batter, liquid chocolate and 3 types of chocolate drops?  For an extra treat these are 50% larger than my usual muffins.

* I try and bake vegan as I firmly believe that there is no excuse for eating eggs that are not free range and organic.    If you cannot afford quality eggs, then you can bake really well without them, seriously just leave them out!

Substitute finely grated plain chocolate for liquid chocolate, regular cow milk would work in place of the soy milk (I really do not like diary milk, although I can eat cheese and cream literally until the cows come home).

Double Chocolate & Banana Muffins (makes 6)

“Dry” Ingredients
7 oz plain flour
2 oz  sugar
2 tbs liquid chocolate or finely grated plain chocolate
2 tbs chocolate chips
1 heaped tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
7 oz  milk (I use soy)
2 oz  sunflower oil
2 very ripe bananas

Whizz the oil and milk mixture with a stick blender or liquidiser until smooth.    Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Bake at GM5/190C/375F in your favourite muffin pan (I use this one)  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

Enjoy warm from the oven.

Thank for Hotel Chocolat for the free samples of liquid chocolate and chocolate drops

Secondly we finally have a winner for the lovely Clearspring hamper from Breakfast Club #1 where the theme was Asian.   Again apologies for the huge delay, lost e-mails, missed calls and several holidays all conspired against the winner, Clearspring and me talking to each other.   All being well the prize will be presented on Thursday and a photo and  the winning dish will be announced then.

Thirdly, back to the round up.   Lots of lovely muffins entries that have given me lots of ideas – I love muffins as they are so quick and easy and they invariably impress when you whip a batch up for breakfast at the weekend.

Firstly Akheela sent some raspberry muffins with whipped cream.    I love berry muffins, I would also have them with cream for breakfast, although the cream may make its way into my coffee.

Nayna from Simply Food sent in three of her muffin recipes.  Firstly banana muffins with a crunchy topping.

Some Chocolate Chip Muffins.

And some lovely looking strawberry muffins.

I am fairly sure that Nayna is lacto vegetarian (a vegetarian that does not eat eggs), as none of her baking or recipes ever contain eggs and everything on her blog is vegetarian.   It is a great reminder that you do not need eggs to be able to bake and that if it is not free range then you can just not use egg at all.

Janet from Taste Space sent in some Maple Pecan Muffins that initially she was unsure about, as they are packed with healthy wheat germ and use brown flour and are crumbly and dry, rather than moist like a tea time muffin.    Armed with this knowledge Janet has decided that they are the perfect breakfast muffin.   Thanks for sharing them Janet.

Angela, at the wonderously named Velvet Kerfuffle send in the second streusel topped muffin, this time using bilberries.  The colour of the batter stained with the berry juice is amazing, and they look delicious and so fruity.

The lovely Johanna, whose blog Green Gourmet Giraffe was one of the first non UK based food blogs I stumbled on, made two varieties of muffin.  Firstly Banana Buttermilk Muffins with raspberries and mandarin, which sounds totally delicious.

Then some parsnip muffins with smoked cheese, which also sound excellent.   I have baked with parsnip before and have been delighted with the results so will be trying these.   Johanna says that they were the whitest muffins she has ever made, they do look fairly bright!

Lastly was Madge, from the Vegetarian Casserole Queen, who made some delicious looking and sounding mocha cappuccino muffins, it is the first time Madge has taken part in a blog event so I am delighted that she chose Breakfast Club!  Food blogging and the connections with people from events does get addictive so I hope she will join in with some other events!

Many thanks to all that took part, check out Sarah’s blog for the round up of Breakfast Club #4 – British which should be appearing soon.   It is my turn to host again in October and I have two ideas for the theme and need to choose which one to go with.

It seems that the entire world has gone mad for matcha, and  once again I am late to the culinary bandwagon.   Last week I visited the Mind Apples pop-up health farm, then went to the Japan Centre for some of their splendid (and very affordable) sushi and spied lots of matcha.   I remembered reading about  Matcha Madness Month on Catty’s blog and decided that it was time to get some fuss free matcha madness in my kitchen.     Bewildered by the choice of matchas on offer I choose a 10g pouch for £2.

For those not in the know, matcha is finely ground Japanese green tea.    It is made from tencha, which is stoneground to a bright green talc like powder.   It is fairly labour intensive process, taking up to an hour to grind 30g.  The tea bushes are covered for several weeks before harvest; the shade slows down growth, resulting in darker leaves and more amino acids giving a more intense flavour.    Matcha is packed full of all sorts of things that are good for you; antioxidants, betacarotene and vitamins A, B & C.  And matcha is also delicious, like green tea, but more intense and sweeter in flavour.

When I bake there is a high chance that I will make muffins, and my first foray with matcha is no exception.  I used Kara coconut milk which added a hint of coconut flavour, but any milk (dairy or non dairy) would work here.    My full muffin method is here, if you eat eggs throw one in with wet ingredients, if not, leave it out.   I did not measure the buttercream ingredients – too much buttercream is not a bad thing and is delicious straight from the bowl!

Matcha Muffins (Makes 4)

For the muffins

“Dry” Ingredients
4.5oz plain flour
1.5oz  sugar
1 heaped tsp matcha powder
1tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
4.5oz  Kara coconut milk
1.5oz  sunflower oil

Whisk the oil and milk mixture with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Bake at GM5/190C/375F in your favourite muffin pan for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

For the buttercream

1 tsp butter or non diary spread
1 tsp milk (I used Kara)
1 tsp  matcha powder
About 4 heaped tbs icing sugar

Beat the butter & milk together for a minute with an electric mixer, add the matcha and icing sugar and beat for at least 5 minutes until fluffy.   You may need to add more liquid or icing sugar.   Too much frosting cannot be a bad thing! Wait until the muffins are cold before frosting them.

I have not seen my friend Sue for seemingly eons, so I texted her yesterday and asked her over for brunch.   She is having a work crisis but said she would love to pop by for an hour.   As she is a self confessed chocoholic I designed these muffins just for her.

These follow my usual muffin recipe;  but in these the orange zest reacts with the baking powder when you mix the wet and dry ingredients together giving the batter a fluffy almost moussy consistency.     We scoffed these when they were still warm, enjoying the still molten chocolate chips.   The photos are not going to win me any prizes, obviously we were keen to eat them as soon as possible.

Double Chocolate Cranberry and Orange Muffins (makes 4 medium muffins)

“Dry” Ingredients
4.5oz plain flour
1.5oz  sugar
0.5oz cocoa powder
Finely Grated zest of one small orange
1 Large tbs chocolate chips
1 tbs cranberries (I snipped the larger ones in half)
1tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
4.5oz  milk (I use soy)
1.5oz  sunflower oil

Whisk the oil and milk mixture with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Bake at GM5/190C/375F in your favourite muffin pan for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

Madhuram of Egg Less Cooking is challenging us to “Bake anything egg less using one or more of the whole grain forms of quinoa (whole quinoa, whole grain quinoa flour, quinoa flakes, quinoa cereal, etc).“  As I have  a) not taken part in a foodblogging event for ages and b) bake almost everything without eggs  I was keen to take part.   The obvious thing for me to make was, of course, muffins!      Muffins are one of my favourite things to bake and are a weekend breakfast tradition.

I used whole quinoa which I soaked overnight in apple juice then followed my usual vegan muffin recipe.   When baked the quinoa retained a some texture and crunch, the muffins were OK – far better with some jam and I want to try them again with some modifications.

Quinoa and Banana Muffins (makes 6)

“Dry” Ingredients
1 oz / 25g quinoa – soaked overnight in 3fl oz / 75ml apple juice
4.5oz / 110g plain flour
1.5oz / 35g sugar
1tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
5oz / 125ml apple juice and milk*
1oz / 25ml sunflower oil
1 banana

Whizz the wet ingredients together using a stick blender.  Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Bake at GM5/190C/375F in your favourite muffin pan for 20 – 25 mins until risen and dark golden.

These were far better with some fig jam.

* I used the remainder of the apple juice that the quinoa had been soaking in, made up to volume with soy milk.

Notes: I was not ecstatic with these.   I think that next time they need a little more oil, a different sugar to plain granulated and would benefit with some dried fruit or nuts.   I really liked the texture of the quinoa which I think would be lost if I used it pre cooked rather than soaked.

Many thanks to Madhuram for hosting and I am looking forward to seeing the round up!