Quadruple Hazelnut and Date Breakfast Muffins

Remember this Peach and Date Bircher Muesli post I did at the start of the month? You probably don't - so I'll recap! I admitted that I am terrible at eating breakfast in the mornings and vowed to change that! I also said I'd be posting lots of interesting new breakfast ideas. Well, I've kept half of that deal! I have been much better at eating breakfast this month and have only had 1 or 2 days this month when I have skipped breakfast, which is a big improvement. However, I haven't posted any more breakfast recipes since then - so I'm rectifying that now!

I've had fun making interesting breakfasts for myself - including a couple of different types of bircher muesli and my own vegan lemon curd (which is great on crumpets!). But I think the best idea for breakfasts is really - breakfast muffins. You can have one day a week where you make up a batch and then you are set for breakfasts for the whole week. Just get up and grab a muffin - no effort required! Muffins also make great healthy day time snacks.

These hazelnut muffins look plain and unassuming but their texture and taste are just amazing! If you are crazy about hazelnuts I recommend using hazelnut milk instead of soy milk and adding half a cup of chopped hazelnuts in - then it will be four levels of hazelnut in the one amazing muffin!

If you want more ideas for breakfast muffins check out my Blueberry Oat Bran Muffins and my Orange, Almond and Choc Chip Muffins!

On another note - I've been nominated for the Best Australian Blogs 2012 People's Choice Award - you can vote for me by hitting up this link: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/bloggingcomp/peopleschoice.html

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1/2 cup hazelnut meal

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup hazelnut milk (or soy if you don't have it)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup hazelnut butter

½ cup dried dates, chopped in half

NB: If you are crazy about hazelnuts then you could also add some chopped hazelnuts to this.

To Make:

1. Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees C.

2. Put the flour, hazelnut meal, sugar, bicarb, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix well to combine and remove lumps (a whisk or a fork work well for this).

3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the hazelnut milk, canola oil, vanilla and hazelnut butter and mix well.

4. Stir through the chopped dates.

5. Either grease a muffin tray well or cheat a bit and use cupcake liners (which I did - it's just easier!!). Fill the tray/liners to the top and then bake for 23-25 mins. 

6. Remove from the oven when they are golden on top and transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes 10 muffins.