A recipe for breakfast muffins

Carrot breakfast muffins

These breakfast muffins are really quick, easy, healthy and hearty. I’ve adapted the recipe over the last few years from one originally found in a magazine and discovered it copes really well with different fruit and vegetables, though carrot, berries and apple work best.

They’re great for breakfast in the week when you’re in a rush so I often whip up a batch over the weekend – why not give them a go!

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

Serves: 18 cupcake size/ 12 muffin size

Oven temp: gas mark 6

Ingredients:

100g wholemeal self-raising flour
100g porridge oats
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
150ml vegetable oil (I use rice bran oil)
Zest and juice of 1 orange

3 medium eggs
200g soft brown sugar
200g fruit/veg

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to gas mark 6, put cupcake/muffin cases or baking paper into trays
2. Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a bowl
3. Stir in the oats
4. Combine oil, orange juice and zest, eggs and sugar in a jug
5. Add wet mix to dry ingredients and mix until combined
6. Gently stir in the fruit or veg – do not over-mix
7. Spoon into the cases and bake for 15 minutes

Cream-cheese icing

This icing works really well on all sorts of fruit-based baked goods. Try it on these muffins, carrot cake or banana bread. I usually sprinkle some poppy seeds over the icing to give it that extra visual flourish.

Ingredients:

150g cream cheese
25g olive oil spread
25-50g icing sugar to taste
lemon juice

Method:

Combine ingredients in a bowl adding icing sugar and lemon juice to taste (add more sugar to combat the cheesiness and then more lemon to combat the sweetness). To get it to a good consistency for icing either leave in the fridge for a few hours or whisk the icing in a bowl over some iced water (an electric hand whisk works best for this).