It is a beautiful morning here in Shetland. The sun is shining, the hills are glittering white with frost. The air is clear and the blue sky is streaked with wisps of feathery clouds. A magnificent morning to start the week, and what better to accompany such a lovely Monday but some beautiful spelt apple carrot muffins?
I’ve been thinking about making some muffins like these for a couple of months now. I made an attempt a while ago, but the results were disastrous; slightly burnt exteriors encasing soggy, sloppy, and flavourless mush. Not much of a glowing success. But this weekend I decided to have another crack at it, and happily the muffin making mojo fell into place wonderfully!
In my search for muffin magic I came upon a really lovely site called 100 Days of Real Food. The site is a treasure trove of tips and recipes all about eating whole, unprocessed food. Obviously right up my alley!! And their recipe for whole-wheat carrot applesauce muffins sounded absolutely gorgeous. So with a few alterations I whipped up these spelt based ones and, my oh my, they are lovely. They’re soft, moist, nourishing, and have the lovely warming flavour of wintry spices, perfect for a beautiful winter day.
If you’ve got a few minutes this morning, why not whip up a batch of spelt apple carrot muffins and take a moment enjoying some healthy muffin loveliness with a hot cup of tea.
- 4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- 100ml or 1/2 cup hot water
- 250g or 1 3/4 cups whole spelt flour
- 1tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp chia seeds (optional)
- 50g or 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 125g or 1/3 cup maple syrup (or runny honey)
- 1 egg
- 1 Lrg carrot (about 100g) coarsely grated
- A handful of oats to sprinkle on top (optional)
- First, to make the apple sauce, place the apples, water and 1 tsp of the cinnamon into a medium size pot over medium heat. Simmer until the apples are very soft, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, and breaking up the apples with a wooden spoon. Once cooked, remove it from the heat, break up any remaining lumps of apple, and set aside to cool a bit. (This will make your house smell delicious!!)
- Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with non stick paper or muffin liners.
- In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, remaining 1 tsp of cinnamon, ginger, salt, and chia seeds (if using them) until well combined.
- In a large jug beat together the oil, maple syrup and egg until well combined and smooth.
- Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and gently stir until all of the ingredients are just evenly moistened, but be careful not to over work it.
- Gently stir in the apple sauce and carrots until evenly distributed.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle the tops of each one with oats if you’d like, and then place the tin into the pre-heated oven.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the muffins are dark golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Remove them from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack for a few minutes, and serve while still warm if possible.
- If you'd like to use whole wheat in place of whole spelt, simply reduce the amount to 200g, or 1 1/2 cups and follow the directions as stated.