Posted by kathryn in Fruit, Baking and Recipes

I’ve had a lot of deadlines recently, which has made it hard to blog with my usual regularity. I’ve been writing articles, recipes, sending out newsletters and finalising details of a new monthly column. In amongst this I’ve been seeing clients and been putting together two new seminars at the clinic. On top of that, Richard and I are beavering away on a new project. It’s very exciting, but not due for release until later in the year, so more of that another day.

So it’s been a busy time and I’m behind with my blogging. There have been questions in comments, news items and posts from other blogs I’ve wanted to cover, plus a couple of new products I’ve spotted in the supermarket, which means the next few days are going to be blogging catch-up.

The first item is a follow up from my last muffin recipe. In the comments, I was asked if you could use tinned fruit and if so, how much.

Well I’ve done the experiment, made two batches of muffins in the last two days (fortunately they freeze) and I can report back the answer is yes . If you want to use tinned fruit, then there are a couple of things to note. Firstly I’d recommend using fruit in juice and you’ll need a large 825g tin to get 500g of fruit out (yes they really are 1/3 liquid). Tinned fruit is “wetter” than fresh, so I’d also recommend leaving the milk out of the original recipe.

One of my muffin batches was these pear, maple and walnut muffins – it’s a lovely combination. I’ve used maple syrup instead of jam and mixed spice instead of ground ginger.

Pear, maple & walnut muffins

As before, these muffins have a high fruit-to-muffin ratio, so they’re best left to cool and firm-up in the tin for about 15 minutes, before moving to a wire rack. You could also bake them using cake cases. Makes 12 muffins.

• 1.5 cups wholemeal flour
• 3 teaspoons mixed spice
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/3 cup walnuts, broken into large chunks
• 1/2 cup yoghurt
• 1 egg
• 1 × 825g tin of pears in fruit juice, drained
• 5 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin.

Sieve together the flour, spice and baking soda. Add in the walnuts and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl whisk together the yoghurt and egg.

Roughly chop up 3 pear halves and add them to the yoghurt mix. Put the rest in a food processor with the maple syrup and pulse together. This will only take seconds, as you still want the fruit to have some lumpy-ness and texture. Add to the yoghurt mixture and stir to combine.

Pour the yoghurt and fruit into the flour and mix together. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin. Place the muffins in the middle of the oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack.

Nutrition information per muffin:

Total kilojoules: 546kJ; Protein: 4g; Total Fat: 3g (mostly poly-unsaturated); Saturated fat: 0.5g; Carbohydrate: 25g; Fibre: 3g; Sodium: 22mg; Number of fruit serves towards daily total: 0.5 serves; Additional nutrients: potassium, Omega 3 essential fatty acids.

07 March, 2007