Thursday 8 November 2012

Vegan Mulberry Hazelnut Muffins


As the weather warms up our mulberry tree is groaning with fruit. Well, I say our mulberry bush, but actually it's on our neighbours property. It's SO massive, though, that there is a monster of a tree growing over onto our yard which bears bowlfuls and bowlfuls of gifts every November. Around now every year we start having mulberry everything - mulberry smoothies, daiquiris, mulberry crumble, mulberry pie, mulberry jam and, of course, fresh juicy mulberries by the handful. 


With the mulberries being plentiful, it seemed natural to introduce them to my next batch of muffins. I love making muffins! I especially have fallen in love with hazelnut muffins - using hazelnut meal and hazelnut butter (for an even more hazelnut-y muffin check out my Quadruple Hazelnut & Date Muffins). The mulberries were sensational in these muffins, and you should seize the opportunity during this brief period that mulberries are available in most fruit and vegie stores. If you don't have mulberries, the best substitute would be blackberries. Failing that, go with blueberries or raspberries. 

If you're one of my Northern Hemisphere readers, then mulberries are most definitely not available for you! I recommend bookmarking this recipe for next spring and in the meantime cracking out the frozen berries and pretending you basking in the warm spring sunshine, as you bask in the warm autumn sunshine.



Ingredients
1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 cup hazelnut meal
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup rice milk (or soy)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup hazelnut butter
1 cup fresh muesli

To Make:
1. Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees C.
2. Put the flour, hazelnut meal, sugar, bicarb and baking powder in a bowl and mix well to combine.
3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the rice milk, canola oil, vanilla and hazelnut butter and mix well.
4. Trim the stems off the mulberries and wash them. You can chop them up a bit but I like to leave them whole so you get a big juice bit of mulberry.
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 almost to the top and then bake for 23 mins. 
6. Remove from the oven when they are golden on top and transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes 12 muffins.


Want more tasty muffins?

7 comments:

  1. For once a vegan muffin that looks like I would want to sink my teeth into it! I am SO glad I crammed this blog into my overstuffed rss feed reader...I had to jump up and down on it a bit but it was WELL worth it :)

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    1. Thanks for following! I have to, say these muffins had the best texture of any muffins I have ever eaten. They were lovely and soft, but not falling apart.

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  2. Hi Keely, this recipe looks so good. I love muffins made with wholemeal flour. I'll give them a try for my daughters school lunch. Where do I get hazelnut butter from? Catherine :)

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    1. Hazelnut butter is available in the health food section or the spreads section of most supermarkets. If not, then health food stores should stock it. If you get really stuck, then you can make your own by chucking lots of hazelnuts in a food processor and processing for a long time. Let me know how these go if you give them a try!

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  3. Yum!! We have a mulberry tree in our backyard, but I have yet to find a way to rid it of all the little insects I find crawling in all the crevices so that I can use the mulberries to make something splendid like this.

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  4. these look soo good! love your blog (:

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  5. Hi there.. You haven't included the quantity of mulberries used in this recipe, nor included the muesli in the method!

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