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?

Orange Almond Choc Chip Muffins

Blueberry Oat Bran Muffins (plus variations) 

Quadruple Hazelnut Date Muffins