Glorious food

On Sunday, after the wonderful day in London, the rain was still lashing at the windows, so it was a perfect day to cook.
I made amazing muffins. These are an all time favourite and have been used to feed the hordes at school and work to raise money for good causes. They are a continuously evolving thing and we have never had the same result twice.

Yesterday I did them with gluten free flour, but actually prefer them with original wholemeal. In lieu of chopped dried apricots and blueberries, in went 50 gm of dried sour cherries and for pumpkin seeds/walnut pieces I used an Aldi seed and fruit mix. I used one courgettte and one carrot and courgette gives a lot of moisture to them. There is a lot of baking powder in this recipe, but for gluten free self raising flour I halved it and it was fine. The rise is good. I think there could have been less of that sharp taste of soda, so a bit less next time. Anyway, the results are like a meal in themselves. Do have a go.

Amazing Muffins

 

300g wholemeal flour

50g    porridge oats

6 level teaspoons of baking powder

250g dark muscovado sugar

2  medium carrots, peeled and finely grated

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg or allspice

6 eggs, lightly beaten

150 ml sunflower oil or light olive oil

150 ml natural yoghurt

75g walnut pieces

100g dried blueberries

100g dried no soak apricots, chopped

50g pumpkin seeds plus extra for decorating

Pre heat oven to 180’C/Fan 160’C/Gas Mark 4

Line some muffin tins with paper muffin cases ( or use a silicon muffin tray)

Mix all the ingredients for the muffins together in a large bowl

Spoon the mixture into the cases to ¾ level

Sprinkle over a small amount of the pumpkin seeds.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and browned.

They are known as amazing muffings because everyone says they are amazing!

I then made Broccoli and Stilton Soup all from left overs and a chicken bacon and mushroom casserole in the slow cooker.