Apple and carrot muffins with walnuts and seeds

Could a muffin become a memorable experience? Ok, I guess what you are thinking… “muffins that become memorable experiences?… you should travel more!”  But I’m so fascinated with this recipe! Imagine a moist base with grated apple and carrot  to witch we’ll  add a few walnuts and sultanas to add some texture and contrast to the flavor, and a topping made by a crumble of rolled oats, seeds and flaked almonds, what brings a crunchy texture. Wouldn’t you fancy one of these?

If you’ve never baked muffins before, the secret for a perfect texture is not to overmix  while putting together the dry and wet ingredients. At that stage just stir with a wooden spoon or a spatula until the moment in which you can’t see any flour or white traces. You might be tempted to keep on stirring a little bit more… but you must be strong and stop stirring!

NOTES

• A trick to chop walnuts the easy way: Put them inside a plastic bag (those with a zip work great) and roll over with a rolling pin several times, until they get the size you are looking for.

• The original recipe uses seeds and rolled oats for the topping, as you see in the pictures above. That’s the version of the recipe you’ll find hereafter, but if you prefer a simpler topping (and still a delicious one!) try this: substitute the sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds for 20 gr of flacked almonds (what would meen35 gr in total).

Apple and carrot muffins with walnuts and seeds

 

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Porciones: 24 medium size (10-12 big size)

Ingredientes

• 300 g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder (10 gr)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon (5 gr)
• un pinch of salt
• 4 free-range eggs (L size)
• 160 ml sunflower oil (150 gr)
• 280 gr of sugar
• 2 tsp of vanilla essence
• 220 gr peeled carrot, grated
• 200 g Granny Smith apples, roughly grated
• 100 g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
• 100 g sultanas
• 50 g flaked coconut

Topping

• 50 g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 75 g plain flour
• 25 g light muscavado sugar
• 50 g whole rolled oats
• 15 g sunflower seeds
• 25 g pumpkin seeds
• 15 g black sesame seeds
• 1 tsp water
• 1 tsp sunflower oil
• 1 and ½ tbsp honey

Elaboración

1. Start by making the topping. In a bowl, stir toether the butter, flour and sugar. Rub with your fingertips until the butter is incorporated and you have a crumbly texture. Mis in the oats and seeds and then the water, oil and honey. Stir everything together, resulting in a wet, sandy texture. Set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/Gas Mark 3. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.
4. Grate the carrots and apples. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
6. In a large mixing bowl, whik toghether the eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla and grated carrot and apple. Gently flod in the pecans, sultanas, coconut and then the sifted flour mixture. Do not over mix, and don't worry if the batter is lumpy and irregular. Spoon into the lined tins and scatter the topping generously over the top.
8. Bake for about 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the tins when they are just warm and allow them to cool down before serving. Their flavour will actually improve after a couple of hours.

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