Blogsphere is full of posts about smoothies at the moment, I have also recently starting having a smoothie most mornings for my breakfast which I am really enjoying. My favourite smoothies currently all have prunes in them, which thicken, and add flavour as well as colour.
I have wanted to make a prune breakfast muffin for sometime; and last night had the idea of blitzing the prunes into the wet ingredients in the style of a smoothie, rather than just having pieces of prune within the muffin. It worked a treat – the muffins were moist and a glorious chestnut colour and packed with flavour – I added more chopped prunes and some crushed walnuts for extra flavour and texture. I think that as the muffins are so moist the recipe would easily take a spoonful or two of bran and the fat content could be reduced (I used 25% less than I normally would for a muffin). Like many of my muffins these are diary and egg free.
Easy to make vegan muffins packed with prunes and walnuts
- 4 ½ fl oz milk – I used rice milk – soy or diary would both work well
- 1 ½ fl oz sunflower or rapeseed oil
- 6 prunes stoneless – I use the semi dried ones that are lovely and fat and juicy*
- 5 oz plain flour
- 1 oz sugar I used Light brown soft sugar – but any would work
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 prunes – chopped – I fine it easier to use scissors and to cut them up
- 6 walnut halves – chopped – again I used scissors
- ½ oz rolled oats
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Place the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well, blitz the wet ingredients with a stick blender in a separate jug (They will be quite thick) . Fold wet ingredients into the dry (no more than 15 folds) to make a batter (some lumps are fine).
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Pour into muffin cases or a silicone mould. Sprinkle some rolled oats and lightly press into batter. Bake for 20 to 25 mins GM4/180C/350F until risen and brown.
*If using dried prunes cover with boiling water and leave for 5 mins to rehydrate slightly before draining and then adding the prunes to the wet ingredients
Johanna
prunes in smoothies! must try it – although a bit concerned about what colour it would be! I have tried prunes in a muffin following wendy’s example of substituting them for the butter and they worked superbly
Sophie
Using chopped prunes and blended prunes is a great idea. I’ve got a boring commuting stint coming up again so I might give these a try for breakfast on the train
The Caked Crusader
I love prunes – they never get the credit they deserve!