You can see from the long ingredient list why these are called “loaded” muffins, but gosh, they’re delicious.
It’s crunch time over at Ethical Ocean and their Eat What’s Good vegan recipe contest. I’ve been hovering around fourth place, which is great considering my competition, but I wouldn’t mind a bump up. You can vote for my Mango Sticky Rice Cake recipe right here. Thank you!
Loaded Morning Muffins with Crumb Topping
Makes 12
Muffins:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp. powdered ginger
1/2 tsp. powdered stevia
1/4 cup maple sugar
2 tbsp. egg replacer + 6 tbsp. water (whisk and then let sit for a few minutes)
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup almond or other nut milk
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
1/4 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
Crumb Topping:
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
1 tbsp. maple sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
Preheat oven to 350F and lightly oil ~9 muffin cups.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove to a cooling rack.
Make the muffins:
Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly oil a muffin pan (~9 muffins). Fill any empty cups with water.
In a large bowl combine the flour, oats, almond meal, baking powder, spices, stevia, and maple sugar. Set aside. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg replacer mixture, pumpkin puree, nut milk, and coconut oil. Pour this into the dry mixture and stir to combine – and then add the carrots, apricots, walnuts, ginger and coconut.
Divide the batter between the muffin cups.
Make the topping:
Combine all of the ingredients and sprinkle evenly among the muffins. Bake muffins for 30-35 minutes or until firm. A toothpick will not come out clean on these babies.
One of my favorite “go-to” vegan-meets-non-vegan-for-dinner restaurants is Oasis Cafe in Salt Lake City. Their menu offers both meat, vegetarian and vegan entrees (clearly marked on the menu) and many other dishes can be altered to exclude meat and dairy. Kel and I went there the other day for lunch and instead of getting my usual tempeh gyro – which I normally cannot resist – I ordered the curried tofu wrap. I was delicious, but I kept thinking it could’ve been better. Not so much better, but more. As in more flavor. It was as if they got all of the parts right, but the complete package was lacking something. It became my challenge to try and make a better version at home. Here, tempeh replaces the tofu and I went with potatoes and cauliflower instead of yellow squash. I just like ‘em better. (Kristy, garbonzo beans would be good, too…)
One night not too long ago as I was contemplating dinner, I realized that I had no bread. Bread with dinner is nearly a must in our household – probably a holdover from when I was a kid and mom always had a loaf to go along with dinner (with luck, a crusty Italian one from Alesci’s). Even the freezer was bare. Luckily I remembered a quick and delicious recipe for oat quickbread and within 15 minutes, a batch was baking in the oven. I messed with the original recipe, of course, and now can’t remember from which cookbook the recipe came. I replaced whole oats with slightly ground oats (it’s a texture thing), used whole wheat flour for white, veganized and de-sugared.
2 cups quick-cooking oats (or lightly grind regular oats)
In spite of my huge love for yeast bread – the labor involved, the simple ingredients that through kneading and time create complex, rich flavor, the satisfying crunch of a deep brown crust, the smell as it bakes – I adore quick breads, with the humble, homely biscuit being my favorite kind. I quite possibly could live on biscuits alone (as long as I have a cup of tea or hot chocolate with which to wash it down and perhaps a schmear of jam). I’ve been messing around with biscuits quite a lot lately, with my attention mostly on the savory kind, but a recent cookie post by emmycooks got me thinking about chocolate and dried apricots. Sounds like sweet scone material to me!
