Pear, Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate Muffins

The Autumnal Ides of March have come and gone and left drizzly cold weather in their wake. The mornings are brisk, the afternoons wet and the nights increasingly long. As tans emerge from cans, follies are spoiled by brollies and Chartreuse takes over from juice, it's the ultimate time to invoke that muffin merriment!

With weather reminiscent of the Austrian Alps, we naturally need a muffin to match. This recipe takes inspiration from the Austro-Hungarian "Linzer Torte" - a wholesome winter cake made from crushed hazelnuts. The genuine article is a Slavic home-maker's dream - a lardy, lattice work spectacular, complete with bright pink raspberry jam. It's the kind of peasant fare that just screams, "hessian is the new black."

Here we give the Linzer Torte a twenty first century make-over! We take it from the realm of dessert into the realm of breakfast, adding sweet winter pears, good quality dark chocolate and Linseed, Sunflower seed and Almond Meal mixture (commonly known as LSA - yes, it sounds like a hallucinogen but it's better). Hazelnuts remain essential but, since Hazelnut meal is both expensive and hard to source, we'll only use them as crunch.

Health Benefits:

LSA is a specially formulated combination of linseed (flaxseed), sunflower seed and almond which is ground into a meal. It's a great source of omega 3, 6 and 9 essential fatty acids, protein, dietary fibre, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Thiamin, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Manganese. It sounds exotic but can be found at any major supermarket! Make sure to keep it in the fridge to prevent any of the good oils turning rancid.

When it comes to chocolate, the darker the better. The higher the cocoa content, the more antioxidants. In fact, dark chocolate contains nearly 8 times the number of antioxidants found in strawberries. These protect the body from ageing caused by free radicals, which can cause damage that leads to heart disease. Not only is it proven to lower blood pressure, studies have shown that consuming a small amount of dark chocolate everyday can lower cholesterol. This wonder-drug also stimulates endorphin production and raises serotonin levels in the brain, all of which makes us feel happy and in control!

Gentle to the core, pears have hypo-allergenic qualities which make them perfect for people with sensitive systems. In fact, pear juice is often recommended for infants. Packed with anti-oxidant and anti-carcinogen glutathione, pears actively work to prevent high blood pressure and stroke. They're also fibrous and full of pectin which make them really useful in lowering cholesterol levels and maintaining digestive health.

Ingredients:

1 Large Bosc (brown) pear, diced.
90g Dark Chocolate, slivered (I recommend using a good quality, 70% cocoa block)
1/3 cup Hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 cup LSA
1 cup Low Fat Vanilla Yoghurt*
1/4 cup Sunflower Oil
2 Eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups Wholemeal Self-Raising Flour
1/2 cup Brown or Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
1 teaspoon of Cinnamon

*(I like using Jalna or a similar pot-set yoghurt. As a general rule, if you use an unsweetened yoghurt then you will need to double the amount of brown sugar)

Method:

1. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180 Degrees Celsius. Dice pear, roughly shave chocolate, chop hazelnuts and set aside.

2. Mix flour, LSA, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and set aside.

3. Separate eggs, keeping both the yokes and the whites. Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. You should be able to tip the bowl upside down and the whites stay put! In another bowl, beat yokes with brown sugar, oil and yoghurt until well blended.

4. Gently combine egg mixtures with the dry ingredients, adding the pear, chocolate and hazelnuts. Make sure ingredients are well incorporated, but don't be rough. We want to retain the airiness in the egg whites to ensure the muffins have a light, spongey texture.

5. Spray patty-pans lightly with any kind of mild vegetable oil, then pour in mixture until it reaches the rims of each case. Dust the tops with some extra cinnamon and pop in the oven for approximately 20 minutes.

Bon appetit!

Zucchini, Walnut and Olive Oil Muffins

Zucchini is a vegetal blank slate.

Of course, that's my elegant, or perhaps tremendously inelegant, way of saying that it's essentially very boring!

It's that nod to greenery we push to the side of a plate with steak and potatoes. The flavour's too mild, the texture's too watery and there's just nothing aesthetic about it. Never could it compete with the tiny flowering limbs of aborial broccoli or crunchy, emerald sugar snap peas.

My dears, it's a bland truth. As a vegetable in roasts and salads, zucchini is a failure.

As a fruit in muffins, however, it's a total winner!

All those shortcomings suddenly become virtues in it's capacity as a muffin ingredient. Because its flavour is so delicate, the muffins won't taste overly vegetal. These are, after all, mid-morning sweet treats and we want the zucchini to meld with the cinnamon sugar rather than overpower it. Furthermore, because it's 95% water, the muffins will stay incredibly moist. Finally, because it's so soft to shred and so malleable to incorporate, it takes on an attractiveness that relies no longer on looks but on practicality!

Olive oil is a gorgeous addition to these muffins. Olive oil is commonly used in good quality savoury cooking to add fresh, grassy fragrance. When it comes to cakes and deserts where we deal with sugary berries and chocolate chips, however, the olivey fragrance is not always appropriate. This recipe is a wonderful exception. Because we're dealing with a fruit that functions more like a vegetable, olive oil is a perfect complement.

Health Benefits:

Zucchini is a calorie couter's Messiah. It's packed with nutrients, low in natural sugars and high in water. It's an excellent source of manganese and vitamin C, as well as magnesium, vitamin A, potassium, copper, folate, and phosphorus. It also contains omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, calcium, zinc, niacin, and protein. The darker and greener the skin, the more nutrients. Finally, it's full of dietary fibre, (particularly with the skin on), which helps reduce cholesterol and keeps you feeling fuller for longer. For a break down of all the wonderful minerals and vitamins you might want to peak at http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=126


Olive oil is a healthy, monounsaturated fat which contains powerful antioxidants that promote health of the heart, skin, hair, nails and brain. To judge the major benefits of olive oil, you need only look to the countries which consume the most of it. Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy have some of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world - about half the incidence of Australia and the UK. These Meditteranean regions have diets which essentially depend on olive oil and have done for centuries. This miracle potion is also packed with antioxidants which fight off cancer-causing free radicals (pollutants) that routinely enter, attack and prematurely age our bodies.


INGREDIENTS:

2 cups shredded zucchini, skin on (equivalent to about 3 medium zucchinis)
2 cups wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts (or 2/3 if you want them more nutty!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
2/3 cup white or caster sugar (and extra for sprinkling)
1/2 cup reduced fat vanilla or honey yoghurt
1/2 cup olive oil (choose a mild variety if you can - not extra virgin)
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 eggs


Top and tail the zucchinis then grate them, skin and all.

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nuts. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, yoghurt and olive oil until smooth. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients, adding the shredded zucchini simultaneously.

Incorporate the ingredients, being careful not to overmix.

Heap the mixture into patty pans or home-made baking paper cups until it reaches the rims of each. Sprinkle the muffin tops with sugar then dust them with cinnamon. This will give them a lovely, fragrant crunchy topping.

Bake in a fan-forced oven at 185 degrees for approximately 25 minutes, or until muffins have risen up and developed golden, crisp tops.

So wholesome and absolutely scrummy!

Lychee, Lime and Coconut Muffins

This exotic fusion of lychees, lime and coconut conjures up visions of the tropics - palm spangled coastlines, balmy air and lost lagoons. They're flavours of the Far East, of far-flung virgin isles and steamy, sun-soaked sanctuaries...

My loves, as we toil away at work in places less idyllic, let me say this:

While you may not be in paradise, you can turn it into a muffin!

This recipe is really sublime. In addition to heaps of shredded coconut, I like to add coconut milk to really intensify the nutty, tropical flavour and give the muffins a beautiful richness. Marry the coconut with sharp, zesty limes and the delicate sweetness of lychees and voila; the perfect escapist muffins. If you haven't attempted any Mademoiselle Muffins so far, let this recipe be your maiden voyage!

Health Benefits:


Green, sour and spritely, everything about limes sings detox!

Limes contain unique flavonoid compounds that have both antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. Not only have these flavonoids been shown to stop cell division in many cancer cell lines, but have displayed potent antibiotic effects. In poverty-stricken parts of West Africa, the inclusion of lime juice in main meals has proven highly effective in fighting Cholera - a rampant bacterial disease.

Furthermore, compounds found in citrus fruits called limonoids have been shown to help fight cancers of the mouth, skin, lung, breast, stomach and colon.

Lychees. I've always thought of lychees as calorific saccharine bulbs - the nutritional equivalents of jelly snakes or gummy bears. The good news is that I'm completely wrong!

Lychees are a fantastic source of Vitamin C. About 100 grams of the fruit - (say 8 or so lychees) -provides over 100% of your recommended daily intake of the vitamin, making them even more effective sources than oranges!

They're rich in essential minerals like copper, magnesium and phosphorus, low in sodium and high in potassium. Being almost entirely fat free, lychees are very low in calories too, averaging about 7 calories per lychee.

Coconut milk is packed with vital minerals - particularly iron, manganese, phosphorous, magnesium and selenium. This makes coconut milk a fantastic source of electrolytes and a potent way to restore all the important trace elements that our bodies lose with stress, sun and sweat.

INGREDIENTS:

10 lychees (tinned) with 1/3 cup of syrup
2-3 limes (large)
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups wholemeal self raising flour
1 cup white sugar (3/4 for the mixture, 1/4 for the tops)
2/3 cup low fat natural greek yoghurt
2/3 cup coconut milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup sunflower or canola oil
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius.

Dice lychees, then zest both the limes. It's best to use an actual zester for this process, but you could use a grater to take off all that wonderful fragrant rind. Halve and juice one whole lime. If you decide to do this by hand, you'll probably end up with slightly less juice than a juicer would provide. I suggest adding a dash of juice from another lime to make up the difference.

The third lime is for your garnish. Slice the lime into wafer thin slivers with a very sharp, serrated knife along its cross section. Halve each slice then set aside.

In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients (including the lime zest) and set that aside too.

In a separate dish, whisk eggs, lime juice, yoghurt, oil, lychee syrup and coconut milk.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then add diced lychees. Combine until JUST INCORPORATED, making sure not to overmix.

Divide mixture into patty-pans until it reaches the top of each. Dust with some extra white sugar, then place a lime sliver on top of each. I like to sprinkle a little more white sugar on top of the lime so that it cures and caramelises in the oven. It also takes the edge of the natural bitterness of the lime pith.

Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden and the muffins have a slight spring to the touch.

Absolutely delicious and hip shrinkingly nutritious! Indulge away!

The Ultimate Orange and Poppyseed Muffins

Orange and poppyseed is a classic baking combination, but far too often I find it rests on its laurels!

Far from the succulent citrus sensations they should be, store-bought orange and poppyseed muffins are almost always dry, bland buttercakes riddled with fruit concentrate. You may find a sprinkling of poppyseeds throughout the mixture, but never enough to affect, let alone enhance, the taste or the texture.

My dears, don't waste the coins or the calories eating mediocre, over-processed junk. Set aside half an hour to create your own batch of the the most luscious, wholesome orange and poppyseed muffins!

What makes this recipe so special, is that it uses the whole orange - rind, pith and all! Add lashings of poppyseeds, low fat yoghurt and the quintessential wholemeal flour and it really is a heavenly, healthy take on a vintage classic.

Health Benefits:

It's no secret that oranges are an excellent source of vitamin C - one of the body's primary antioxidants - but just one orange supplies a whopping 116.2% of your recommended daily intake of the vitamin. Oranges contain super high levels of phytonutrients and flavenoids, the most important of which is herperidin - shown to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol. Ironically, this vital nutrient is found in the peel and inner white pulp of the orange - the parts we generally throw away. In these muffins, we use the whole orange, thereby harnessing all those goodies! Furthermore, a 2003 CSIRO report all showed that, out of all fruits, citrus offers the most significant protection against mouth, larynx, pharynx and stomach cancers. For these cancers, studies showed risk reductions of 40 - 50%.

Poppy seeds are packed with a variety of of minerals, including high levels of calcium, magnesium, zinc and potassium.
They're also full of essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6 which maintain healthy brain and cardiovascular function, and promote glowing skin and glossy hair!

INGREDIENTS:

For this one you'll need a saucepan and an electric blender or food processor.

2 large oranges (preferably naval)
1 lemon
1/2 cup poppy seeds
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn baking soda
2/3 cup white sugar
pinch of salt
1 tspn ground cardamom
1 tspn cinnamon
2 1/2 cups wholemeal self raising flour
2 eggs
1/3 cup sunflower oil
3/4 cup low fat vanilla yoghurt

Preheat oven to 190ºC.

Place one of the oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Set the pan on the stove and heat slowly until the water reaches boiling point. When the water has boiled, reduce heat to a gentle simmer and let the orange cook slowly over the heat for 45 minutes. When the orange is soft, remove it from the pot and let it drain and cool. This process will make sure there's no bitterness left in the pith.

While the cooked orange cools, prepare the rest of the citrus ingredients. Grate all the zest (rind) from the fresh orange and lemon until the white of the pith is visible and set it aside. Then, juice the whole orange and half of the lemon. I use an electric squeezer, but you can easily do it by hand. Set the juice aside.

Once the orange has cooled, slice it in half and remove any visible pips. Then place both halves in a food processor and blend until the orange has turned into a puree.

In a large bowl mix dry ingredients, including poppy seeds and zest, and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, yoghurt, orange juice, lemon juice and orange puree. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated. Do not overmix!

Spoon mixture into patty pans, heaping the mixture above the rims of each. You can load these ones a little more than usual because they'll rise into great, crisp muffin tops. Sprinkle some extra white sugar across the tops of each muffin. This will help give the top of the muffin a golden crunch.

Place in a fan-forced oven at 190 Degrees for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and the muffin has a slight spring to the touch.

Voila! Perfect orange and poppy seed muffins for brekky or mid-morning coffee break!

Fresh Fig and Almond Muffins

Figs are utterly and completely my favourite fruit. They remind me of Easter family holidays at the farm, racing around in the sun as a kid and clambering up the fruit trees in the orchard. We'd sort through hundreds of figs at a time, frustrated at the dozens already sampled by pesky birds and thrilled to find those perfect purple teardrops hidden under the larger leaves.

So for me, figs have a real romance about them. They're rare, have a dramatically short life span, and taste euphoric. With their unique, refined flavour, elegant sweetness and luscious texture, it's unbelievable that something completely natural and organic can taste so decadent. Pair them up with rich, nutty almonds and the combination is divine. My family devoured this batch within a day!

It's a total bonus that they're fantastic for you.

Health Benefits

Figs are full of fibre. In fact, two figs provide you with 30% of your recommended daily fibre intake. Those crunchy little seeds that burst when you chomp into the pink flesh are loaded with roughage which helps maintain a clean digestive tract. You'll find that the more fibre you eat, the fuller you'll feel for longer, meaning that you won't feel so inclined to snack on processed, rubbishy carbohydrates.

Like bananas, they too are a great source of potassium - the essential mineral that helps to control blood pressure and prevent hypertension. They're also packed with vitamin A - necessary for healthy eye function, and are a great vegetal source of calcium.

Almonds are high in monounsaturated fats, the same type of health-promoting fats as are found in olive oil, which have been proven to help lower cholesterol and reduce risk of heart disease. Almonds also decrease the after-meal rises in blood sugar associated with diabetes, so help protect against the disease.

Finally, eating almonds regularly has been proven to promote weight loss! A study published in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders suggests that an almond-enriched diet, high in monounsaturated fats, can help overweight individuals shed pounds more effectively than a low calorie diet high in complex carbohydrates.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 cup slivered almonds (1/2 for the muffin mixture, half for the garnish)
pinch of salt
3/4 cup brown sugar (1/2 for the muffin mixture, 1/4 for the garnish)
2 tspns cinnamon
1 tspn ground ginger (optional)
1 1/2 tspns bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tspns baking powder
3 large figs
2 eggs
1 cup low fat vanilla yoghurt (choose a tub-set yoghurt with natural probiotics)
1 tspn lemon juice
1 tspn vanilla essence
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1 tbspn treacle


Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl, making sure to only add 1/2 a cup of the brown sugar. In a separate dish, whisk eggs, oil, treacle, yoghurt, vanilla essence and lemon juice. You'll notice that we're using less oil than usual because the almond meal will naturally make the muffins richer.

When choosing figs, always go for the heaviest ones - they'll be the sweetest and most dense. Dice figs into small pieces then pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Remember that overmixing will result in yucky rubbery muffins, so be careful!

Divide mixture into patty-pans or make-shift baking paper cups, until it reaches the rims of each. Sprinkle with remaining slivered almonds and brown sugar.

Bake in a fan forced oven at 190º C for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 150º and bake until tops are golden and the mixture has a slight spring to the touch. I find these muffins take longer than usual because the figs have such a high water content and tend to keep the mixture moist. Don't expect them to rise as high as the caremelised banana muffins - they will naturally be a little flatter.

Wait until they have completely cooled and indulge away!
Or... if you're feeling a bit naughty, try them hot with a scoop of vanilla bean icecream for dessert...


(Thanks for the inspiration Will!)

Caramelised Banana, Date and Walnut Muffins

This delicious little recipe is inspired by two friends who reminded me how essential it is to have useful ways to use up those brown, overripe bananas that hang around in the fruit bowl attracting flies!

Sludgy, black bananas are totally ideal for cakes and muffins. The riper the banana, the higher the sugar levels, which means a whole lot more natural sweetness. You'll also find that the intensity of the flavour skyrockets as they ripen, so using those soft, gooey ones will really enhance the banana flavour in the muffins.

If they haven't yet reached the brown and sludgy stage, you have two options:

1. Speed up the ripening process by placing them in the fridge or freezer for a day or two, then remove them and let them reach room temperature. You'll be surprised how fast they soften after a day in the cold.

Or, as I absolutely LOVE to do:

2. Caramelise them! Caramelised bananas are ambrosial. You find them in pancake, pie and tart recipes all the time, but they've been sorely overlooked in the muffin department! Cooking bananas will intensify the sugars and bring out the flavour, but will also coat them in incredible crispy toffee which adds another dimension to the muffins altogether.

Health Benefits

The banana is the George Clooney of fruit. There's just no role it can't perform.

Packed with potassium, bananas help normalise the heartbeat and regulate the body's water balance. When we're overworked and anxious, or when digestive upset strikes, the amount of potassium in our bodies severely depletes. Eating bananas replenishes the levels of this essential electrolyte, restoring normal bodily functions and effectively working to relieve stress.

They also contain the amino acid, tryptophan, which is key in the production of serotonin - the body's natural mood-lifting chemical. In this way, eating bananas can reduce depression and lessen the severity of anxiety disorders.

Finally, they're are full of natural antacids, so really help to soothe the stomach and protect against heartburn and stomach ulcers.

Dates are packed with a variety of B-complex vitamins necessary in everyday bodily functioning, and contain the highest concentration of polyphenols - a plant derived antioxidant - among dried fruits.
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/81/1/215S

Walnuts are, among other things, an excellent source of omega-3 essential fatty acids, making them fantastic for the maintenance of cardiovascular health.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=99

Now let's get cracking... and mixing and baking!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1 tspn bicarbonate soda
1 tspn baking powder
1 pinch salt
2/3 cup brown sugar (and an extra 1/4 cup for caramelisation process)
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup dates, (roughly chopped)
2/3 cup walnuts (roughly chopped)
3 medium bananas (or 2 extra large)
2 tbspns treacle or golden syrup
1 tspn vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 cup low fat vanilla yoghurt (choose a natural, tub-set yoghurt)
1/2 cup sunflower oil (plus 1 tabspn for caramelisation process)
1/3 cup milk

Unless your bananas are brown and mushy, start by caramelising them.

Heat a fry pan on a medium heat with a good dash of sunflower oil and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Slightly incorporate the oil with the sugar so it becomes paste-like.

Slice bananas into rough quarters and lay them in the pan. Fry on a medium heat for approximately two minutes on each side, or until bananas soften and a golden toffee coating forms on their outsides. Allow to cool, then mash them up with a fork and set aside.

Mix flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon in a large bowl. Roughly chop walnuts and dates and add them to the mixture.

In a separate bowl, whisk treacle, eggs, milk, yoghurt, vanilla essence and oil. Pour liquid into the bowl of dry ingredients, and add the mashed banana. Stir until just incorporated, being careful (as always), not to overmix.

Divide into either patty pans, or, as I have done in this recipe, into make-shift baking paper cups. I find the baking paper gives the muffins a really rustic look which works well with these hearty, traditional ingredients.

Place half a date on top of each muffin as a garnish, and bake in a fan forced oven at 190ºC for approximately 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden and have a slight spring to the touch.

Bon appetit my dears! (And thanks for the inspiration Weenie and Leesh!)

Flour Power

Flour is the quintessential staple ingredient.

Even so, at times the choice of flour can be pretty limited, especially if you rely on the corner shop to get your baking supplies.
There will always be plain white flour and, more often than not, self-raising white flour, but neither of those will be too much use to you in making these muffins.

I'll always go for a wholemeal flour in my recipes because it's one easy way to get a boost of dietary fibre without really noticing you're doing so. Wholemeal flour isn't too hard to find. It's in every supermarket and nearly every local grocery store, but it's wholemeal self-raising flour that can be trickier to source.

If you can't find it, there's an easy solution: just double the quantities of bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in the recipe and you'll get a very similar result.

If you can't even find wholemeal flour, then buy plain flour, double the quantities of the raising agents, and add half a cup of wheat germ to the mixture.

There are always ways to get that fibre hit!