Chestnut Flour & Sweet Potato Muffins

When I first found chestnut flour here in Italy it was an absolute revelation. It is amazing – naturally sweet with a real toasty flavour. In its honour, and paying homage to my adoration of sweet potato, I created these gorgeous gluten-free, sugar-free muffins – they’ll stop you in your tracks!

There’s no need for any sweetener as the potato and chestnut are naturally sweet…if you’ve got a particularly sweet tooth add a little honey –   get hold of chestnut flower honey you’ll be in heaven!.

Read more and the recipe here

Orange, Carrot, Ginger, Honey and Bran Muffins

Orange, Carrot, Ginger, Honey and Bran Muffins by Sarah (sorry no photo yet, but next time we make them).

Healthy Muffins (or so I would like to believe!). We haven’t used any sugar in this recipe, just honey, so try the mixture before you cook it as it may not be sweet enough for your taste buds. You can always add more!

Prep Time 15 mins

For the muffins:

250 g self raising flour

1 cube of fresh ginger, grated, or 1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp mixed spice

3 tbsp honey (or more or less to taste)

1 tbsp treacle

100 ml milk

100 ml olive oil

2 large eggs (preferably home grown!)

3 carrots, grated

1 largish orange

1 cup of bran

For the topping:

125g sultans or raisins

1/2 packet cream cheese

small amount of icing sugar for topping

preheat oven to 180oC

1. Sieve flour into a large bowl. Add the mixed spices and ginger.

2. Beat eggs lightly and then beat in the milk, treacle, honey and olive oil.

3. Grate the carrots and orange zest and add to the dry mixture.

4. Stir in the bran and the sultanas.

5. Stir egg mixture into the flour mixture gently. The mixture should not
be too stiff or too runny, just add a little milk if too stiff.

6. Spoon out into 12 (approx) cake cases.

5. Bake on 180oC for about 20 minutes. You can test with a piece of
spaghetti to make sure they are cooked in the centre. It should come out
clean, with no bits of cake mixture stuck to it.

6. Mix the cream cheese with the icing sugar, or if being really healthy, more honey.

7. Leave muffins to cool and then ice with the frosting.

8. EAT!

We often substitute some of the ‘flavours’ for others. I think when in season, this recipe would be good with walnuts too.

PS If you can’t get treacle don’t worry, they are just as good without it, we just love the treacle flavour.