Thursday 19 August 2010

breakfast muffins

I did a bit of cleaning the other day (well tried to) in the aim of sorting through my piles of books and food magazines so I could keep things together and make them easier to find. At the end of the 'cleaning', I'd managed to unearth all of my Donna Hay cookbooks and magazines and I'd very easily filled an entire 60L container! There were a handful that didn't quite make the box because they just wouldn't fit! You could say that I'm a little obsessed with Donna and well, I actually want to get a hold of some of her back issues but unfortunately most of them have sold out! 

Call me biased but I'm a big fan of Donna Hay. I love how simple and tasty her recipes are, haven't come across a bad one yet (though I do agree with others who say that her recipes might not be as detailed as they should be), the photography in her cookbooks and magazines is stunning and I love Donna for the fact that she makes me excited about food. There isn't a recipe I wouldn't make out of her books and well, a long time ago I gave up bookmarking the recipes I wanted to make out of her books, I ended up bookmarking each one! Anyway, here's a recipe I adapted from her Simple Essential's collection 'Fruit'.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place 185ml vegetable oil, 330g caster sugar, 125ml milk and 3 eggs in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add to the mix 450g sifted plain flour, 2tsp baking powder, 20g rolled oats and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Stir to combine. Finally add 1 grated apple, 2 mashed bananas and 250g chopped strawberries (I defrosted frozen ones I had in the freezer). Stir the entire mix to combine but be careful not to overmix.

Fill 18 x lined muffin holes with the mix. Sprinkle the tops with 30g rolled oat and 1 tbsp raw sugar.

Here's how they look in the book.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Here's how they look out of the oven. Above recipe makes 18.

Set muffins onto a wire rack to cool.


In the usual fashion, I stood by the oven (or pressed my face into the oven window) and watched these muffins whilst they baked. I was surprised at how quickly they expanded and at one point, was quite concerned that the bottom tray would rise to much and get caught in the tray above it. Thankfully, all was well, the muffins made their way out and made their merry way into my stomach!

True to the title of this post, this recipe makes a kick arse breakfast muffin. It's sweet, but not too sweet and with 3 kinds of fruits in the ingredients, I'd like to think that it's actually healthy!

8 comments:

mashi said...

I do love a good healthy breakfast muffin. Fruits in muffins keep them moist and healthy. Thanks for sharing this recipe =)

Anonymous said...

It is very interesting for me to read the blog. Thanks for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to them. I would like to read more on that blog soon.

Julia Benedict

Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) said...

Fruit always makes things healthier! If people can have croissants for breakfast then you can definitely have muffins =)

Von said...

I'm not a huge Donna Hay fan, but I do like some of her recipes. These muffins look delicious though...

hehe....I love watching stuff bake in the oven too! Except it's sorta a waste of time for things which take an hour or so....but it doesn't stop me =D

Emma @CakeMistress said...

Sweeeeeet. Have got all the ingredients for these right now including a massive bag of oats I didn't know what to do with. Definitely making these tonight ready for breakfast tomorrow. Thanks :)

panda said...

mashi - without thinking, I'm always baking muffins with fruit in them, they taste too good! glad you like the recipe!

anonymous - thanks for popping by my blog!

mademoiselle delicieuse - if anything I should probably eat more fruit by itself but a fruity muffin isn't a bad choice either :)

von - i'm a bit ridiculous when it comes to chefs; i fall in love with them all and donna has some rather pretty recipes! and glad to hear you share the same habits as me :)

emma - good luck with the recipe! glad you popped by my blog :)

Amy @ cookbookmaniac said...

I have so far failed at all the muffins I've made. I have always overfilled them and they go over the edges and sink in the middle from lack of support. Your muffins look so regal in comparison to my flacid attempts. sigh.

ps. pressing your face up against the oven whilst goodies are baking is a sign of a true foodie ;)

Natalie said...

I absolutely love these muffins! I made them one year ago and they were were popular with other members in the household. Tonight I wanted to make them again, and after 10 minutes of google searching, I found your blog again and made them. I substitute the strawberries and use frozen mixed berries from the frozen section in my supermarket. I also use dark brown sugar rather than castor sugar - it is healthier for you and brings out a more caramel-like flavour in the muffins :)