Fruity Hazelnut Muffins (butter free)

Oops, I'm sorry for the lack of postage recently. Various non-food-related things have been overtaking my life (yes I do more than just baking and eating!) and something had to give. Don't worry, I've still been eating - just not writing about it.

Let me offer you some Fruity Hazelnut Muffins by way of apology. This is a breakfasty-pick-me-up-and -dash-out-the-door-kind-of muffin. (Proper muffin terminology that.)

You can use any dried mixed fruit such as raisins, sultanas, apricots...anything goes really. If you can, soak the dried fruit in some boiling water before adding into the mix. This will help to make it nice and juicy in the muffin and avoid the risk of drying out.

Alternatively, you could chop up some fresh apple or pear instead of using the dried fruit. Just throw it in and see what happens.

With the hazelnuts, these are simply sprinkled on top (which gives it a nice Cornetto feel, minus the ice-cream), so that you have a light crunchy topping. I did add some to the muffin mixture itself too, but because I only had finely chopped hazelnuts to hand, I wasn't sure whether this would upset the flour.

Yes, it gets stroppy sometimes when I mess with the cake ratio and thus decides not to hold things together.

But in this case, it did, thankfully, and you now have these Fruity Hazelnut Muffins to enjoy!

Fruity Hazelnut Muffins (butter free)

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 6:

75g dried mixed fruit (eg raisins, sultanas, apricots)
125g plain flour
50g sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
25g hazelnuts, finely chopped + 1 tbsp
1 egg
125g Greek yogurt
1.5 tbsp rice bran oil

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Put the dried fruit in a small bowl, cover with boiling water and set aside.
2. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with the sugar, baking powder, bicarb and 25g of hazelnuts. Drain the fruit, then fold this into the flour mixture.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg with the yogurt and oil. Add this into the fruity flour mixture and fold until just mixed.
4. Spoon the mixture into 6 muffin cases, then top each one with the remaining tbsp of hazelnuts. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and the hazelnuts just start to brown.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy.