Virtuous Apple Ginger Muffins

A favourite muffin inspired by a recipe by the lovely Sophie Dahl.  There is no sugar and the recipe uses spelt flour, oats and applesauce to keep it moist.  The result is a lighter-than-air treat that is moist, tasty and good for you....top that!  All this in an effort to increase my health efforts before Christmas...I even tried a very cool ballet-inspired fitness class this week...so between doing that and eating these muffins, I should be guilt-free by Christmas!  If only it were so easy.

What the heck...try the muffins...they are good.  'Nuff said.

Virtuous Apple Ginger Muffins

Sunflower oil (or paper cases)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or 1/8 tsp dry)

1 1/4 cup spelt flour (you can use whole wheat flour)

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

4 egg whites, lightly beaten

1/2 cup greek or natural yogurt

3/4 cup agave syrup or honey

1 firm apple, peeled, cored and diced

3/4 cup of raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a 12 hole muffin tin with sunflower oil or use paper cases.

Sift baking powder, soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl.  Stir in flour and oats.  Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add in all the wet ingredients, apple and raisins.  Stir very gently just until dry ingredients are folded into the batter.  Pour batter into muffin tins.  You can garnish each with a thin slice of apple, if you like.

Bake for 25 - 30 mins until tops are brown.  Serve warm with apple butter.

Pumpkin Muffins - Fall has arrived!!

Ahhh...Autumn!  I love summer, but there is something so comforting about the arrival of fall.  Z says that September is really like New Years, since it is the time when school starts and everyone gets back 'at it' from the lazy summer months.  A renewal of sorts.  And I love pulling out the warm woolly sweaters and boots.   I had my first pumpkin spice latte of the season today.  It inspired thoughts of an old favourite recipe for pumpkin muffins from my university days.    Not really health-conscious per se....so I've added a couple of options to lighten them up in brackets.  Personally, the full recipe without modification is still the best.  Everything in moderation, right?  These are best fresh out of the oven, while still warm and crumbly....preferably with a hot tea on the deck with crunchy, coloured leaves underfoot.  

Pumpkin Muffins

4 eggs
1 cup sugar  (3/4 works okay too)
1 cup veg oil (or 1/2 cup veg oil and 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce)
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries
3 cups whole wheat flour (or 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup whole spelt flour)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp soda
2 tsp powder
1 tsp salt

Beat eggs, sugar, oil (and applesauce, if using) and pumpkin.  Mix well.  Sift together dry ingredients.  Add to egg mixture with raisins (or cranberries) and mix until just combined.  Bake at 400F for 15 mins.

Sweet 15 - Sticky Buns

Someone turned 15 in our house today...So the best of the best for a fifteen year old girl was brought out this morning...waking up to 'Fifteen' by Taylor Swift (there is a 'song count' on today...how many times can you listen to the same song in a day....we were up to 7 by the time she left for school)...having sticky buns, hot chocolate and bananas with sugar and milk for breakfast...does it get any better than that?  The grin on her face as she was sitting down to eat, was worth the price of admission!

So these sticky buns are from the secrets of my lovely Jill.  They are THE breakfast in our house for birthdays, Christmas, cottage stays...actually any event will do.  Last year when Z's hockey finals landed on K's birthday, we actually took a big pan to the arena with us and shared the bounty at 8 am on a Saturday!  They never get tired.

The real beauty is how easy they are...make ahead the night before and pop them in the oven in the morning.  They make you look like a rock star for very little effort.  Thanks Jilly.

Sticky Buns

2 loaves frozen bread dough (or pizza dough)
Instant butterscotch pudding (1 box)
1/2 cup butter (melted)
1/3 cup brown sugar.

Thaw dough and cut dough into bite sized pieces.  Arrange pieces evenly in a greased angel food pan.  Mix butter and brown sugar together.  Sprinkle the butterscotch pudding mix over the dough then pour the butter mixture over the top evenly.  Cover lightly with waxed paper then a tea towel.  Let rise overnight.  Bake at 350F for 20 mins.

Confession:  I sometimes increase the butter and brown sugar.  I find that you need to cover the pudding mix pretty well with the wet mixture or else you'll just get dry powder on the top when it's baked.  Try to cover the dough with the wet mixture and add more butter, as needed.