Fresh summer berries add delicious flavour, colour and nutrition to these tempting muffins. They are best fresh from the oven, but are also good once cooled – an ideal addition to a lunchbox, or for breakfast on the go.
Fresh berries are naturally low in fat. They contain dietary fibre and make a good contribution to vitamin C intake. Raspberries also supply vitamin E, and blueberries, like cranberries, contain a compound that helps to prevent urinary tract infections.
Instead of a mixture of white and wholemeal flours, use all wholemeal flour. * For a hint of spice, add 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice, ground ginger or cinnamon with the flour. * Replace the berries with other fresh fruit, such as chopped apples, apricots, peaches or strawberries or dried fruit, such as sultanas, raisins, chopped apricots, dates or figs. * To make pear and cinnamon oatmeal muffins, mix 200 g wholemeal self-raising flour, 60 g oatmeal, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon in a bowl. Fold in 2 peeled and chopped pears. In a separate bowl, mix together 60 g melted reduced-salt margarine, 1/4 cup caster sugar, 2 eggs and 2/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice. Pour this over the flour mixture and fold the ingredients together. Spoon into 9 paper muffin cases and bake as in the main recipe. * For mini muffins, divide the mixture among 30 mini paper muffin cases and bake for 10 minutes.
Used different ingredients. Used a combination of coconut milk and soy (I ran out of coconut) and it worked fabulously. However - my muffin mix started out the expected tan, and rapidly went GREEN! Not sure if it was the milk substitute or the frozen raspberries I used that did it, but the muffins look decidedly unhealthy, despite being delicious! - 11 Jun 2009
Great breakfast muffins - they all got eaten by lunch time. We loved them - 09 Oct 2011