PEAR AND HONEY MUFFINS

I'm all for eating healthy, but there's no way I'm kicking my cupcake to the curb in favour of some carrot sticks. Hell no. I don't care what the health benefits are, if it's not tasty, I'm not eating it. On the other hand, if you give me something that tastes as good as the real thing, but is a hell of a lot better for me, then I'm a happy girl. That's where these babies come in. I originally saw the recipe on Madeleine Shaw's website, the queen of all things healthy (#gettheglow). Grain free and dairy free, these are just full of good stuff. And damn, they are good.

INGREDIENTS

300g ground almonds

1 tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cinnamon

50g coconut oil

3 eggs

50g honey

1 vanilla bean or 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

3 pears

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC and prepare a cupcake tin with 9-12 cases.

2. Mix the almonds, spices, salt and baking powder in a bowl. 

3. Combine the rest of the ingredients, except the pears, and then slowly add in the dry ingredients.

4. Slice the pears into 1/2 cm strips (remove the seeds and core).

5. Place some of the pear slices into the cases, add some cake batter then add another layer of pear and fill the container with the cake batter.

6. Complete this with the rest of the mix.

7. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown, then remove and allow to cool. Once cooled remove them from the tins and flip them over.

APPLE & CINNAMON CRUMBLE MUFFINS

I've been dying to bake something that really encapsulated the autumnal feeling, and when I found this recipe over on Donal Skehan's website, I had to make them right away! Because of this, I had to make a few changes to the recipe as I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand. Despite this, these are quite possibly the best muffins I've ever tasted! 

Apple and Cinnamon Crumble Muffins
Makes approx. 12

For the muffin mixture:
75 ml olive oil
200ml buttermilk
zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
150g caster sugar (I used 50g caster sugar, 100g light muscovado sugar for flavour)
250g self raising flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
250g peeled and diced apple*

For the crumble topping:
50g vanilla sugar (I used caster sugar)
50g plain flour
50g butter

Preheat the oven to 190˚C. Line a muffin/cupcake tray with paper cases. I used squares of baking parchment measured 15cm by 15cm for a more rustic feel.

Measure the oil and buttermilk in a pyrex jug and then stir through the lemon zest and set aside.

Using a handblender with a food processor attachment, blitz the ingredients for the crumble topping until you get left with rough crumbs.  You can also do this by hand in a bowl using your fingertips to combine the ingredients together, but be sure to be quick or the butter will get too soft.  Set the crumble topping aside.

In a standalone mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in the oil, buttermilk and lemon zest and whisk until combined.

Gently fold in the flour and cinnamon until just combined. Fold through 3/4 of the diced apple until combined. Be sure not to over mix the batter.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, top with the remaining apple and about a teaspoonful of the crumble topping.

Place in the oven on the middle wrack to cook for 20-25 minutes until brown on top.

Remove from the oven and place on a wire wrack to cool.

*You can use either cooking apples or regular apples. I used regular as I didn't have any cooking apples to hand, but I would definitely use cooking apples next time as they would be slightly more tart, adding to the delicious flavours.