Carrot, Apple and Pecan Muffins…..
Admin on Nov 06 2009 at 2:52 pm | Filed under: Food, Food, Photographs, Recipe Books, Sweet
The words that really caught my eye in the Ottolenghi Cookbook, were “We wanted to start this book with the quip, ‘If you dont like lemon or garlic…..skip to the last page.’”! I just knew then that I would love the rest of the book!
The book is a wonderful collection of recipes based on wonderful fresh foods! Recipes include amongst others, Fennel and Feta with Pomegranate seeds and Sumac, Chargrilled Broccoli with chilli and garlic, French Bean Salad and Orange and Pistachio Marshmallows I love the hint of the Middle East in many of the recipes.
You can read more about Ottolenghi here.
I made the Carrot, Apple and Pecan muffins which were perfect for the slightly chilly weather we are starting to experience at the moment! They are very moist, loaded with healthy ingredients and very tasty!
Recipe adapted from Ottolenghi:The Cookbook
Start by making the topping:
50g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
75g cake flour
25g light muscavado sugar (I used plain brown)
50g rolled oats
15g sunflower seeds
25g pumpkin seeds
15g sesame seeds
5g poppy seeds
1 tsp water
1 tsp sunflower oil
1 ½ tbs honey
Stir together the butter, flour and sugar. Use your finger tips until the butter is mixed in and you have a crumbly texture. Mix in the oats and seeds followed by the water, oil and honey. Set aside.
For the muffins:
300g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
A pinch of salt
4 free-range eggs
160ml sunflower oil
280g castor sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
220g peeled and grated carrot
200g Green apples, grated
100g pecan nuts
100g sultanas
50g desiccated coconut
Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, grated carrot and apple.
Gently fold in the nuts, sultanas and coconut and then the flour mixture. Don’t over mix. Spoon into prepared muffin tin and sprinkle the topping generously over the tops.
Bake for about 25 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.
The recipe says it makes 10-12; I got 18 medium sized muffins from the mixture.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
xxxxx
They look so stylish with the way you wrapped them!
An another note – that cookbook sounds right up my alley, I’m a garlic addict!
these look so pretty!
I have never combined apples and carrots in baking. That is a great idea
Great pics too
What a great way to make use of the A-team of the moroccan pantry. I love the stylistic flare of brown paper cups. Well done. I’ve been looking over this blog, and I love how passionate you are about food, with the courage to try new recipes fearlessly. It is exactly the type of thing that keeps readers engaged. On this note, as a fellow rabatian (for the time being) I would love to get some kitchen narratives for some research that I’m currently engaged in. So I have a favor to ask of you and anyone else reading this forum. I know this is pretty bad forum ettiquite, some may say hshuma, but as I couldn’t find an email posted on the site, this turned out to be the only other option I could think of. I’m sorry. At any rate, I am an American Anthropology student studying abroad in Morocco for the semester. Currently, I’ve resided here for a bit over 2 months, and have gotten to know and begin becoming comfortable with the language, culture and food. Particularly the food. As such, the fieldwork (which is required by my program), incorporates foodways in an interesting way. I mean to collect narratives, recipes, and oral histories of the significance food plays in Moroccan life. In other words, I want particular moroccan’s food stories; and what better medium to find some than online (I know it would be more productive to broadcast this in darija but hey, I’ve only been here a couple of months, I’m not that comfortable!). Any help with this ethnographic work (resources, contacts, participation) would be beyond appreciated, and I suppose I’m trying to appeal to everybody’s sympathetic side to help out a poor liberal arts kid through the avenue of food. Thanks first for reading this, and thanks even more if you decide to participate.
Once again – everyone repeat after me – the Ottolenghi cookbook ROCKS! I own it, but it is still packed in a box together with my other books, awaiting the day when we have enough bookshelves. aaarrrgh!