Muffin Archives - Gimme The Recipe - You came for the food now stay for the romance!

Every magazine I open lately has someone or other decrying sugar. I can’t see myself ever abandoning any food stuff and cutting it out of my diet for good – definitely not sugar. I stay away from artificial sweeteners and additives when I can but I adore sugar. Real sugar, real food, real good. I need a little sweetness in my life and I will never give it up. These buns are tasty and filling and they’re also gluten-free.

Lemon Polenta Buns
You will need:
140g butter
140g light brown sugar
120g polenta
30g ground almond
30g corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3 tbsp natural yoghurt
1 lemon
100g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
225g icing sugar
Method:
Pre-heat the fan oven to 160C.
Line a bun tray with 12 cupcake cases.
Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and brown sugar together.
Put the polenta, ground almond, corn flour and baking powder into a bowl together and mix to combine.
Beat the 3 eggs together in a bowl.
Add half the polenta mixture into the beaten butter and sugar and begin to mix with the electric mixer adding in half of the beaten egg.
Add the remaining polenta mixture and flour and mix well. Use a spatula to mix in the natural yoghurt.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and prick all over with a cocktail stick. Pour over juice of half the lemon and leave the buns to cool.
When ready to decorate mix together the cream cheese, sieved icing sugar and juice of half a lemon and combine until smooth. Poor spoonfuls of the creamy lemon icing over the buns.
Enjoy!
‘Til next time, Sheila.

Beetroot & Carrot Muffins

What to do with leftover beetroot? Leftover beetroot you sneer with raised eyebrow, who actually buys raw beetroot? I rarely do but a week or so ago I decided to try out a vibrant red thai vegetarian curry – a recipe from The Happy Pear that I saw online- and its vibrancy was due to the use of a grated beetroot. So when buying the beetroot I bought 2. As you do. I only needed 1 but I put 2 in the basket – turns out I’m an impulsive beetroot buyer and when it’s in your basket you can’t really put it back on the shelf.

I know I say this about everything I blog but these muffins are soooo good. Deliciously moist and if eaten unfrosted relatively healthy when compared to your average muffin.

Note: When grating the beetroot wear rubber or plastic gloves – highly recommend using a food processor with a grater attachment when grating.

Makes approx. 15 muffins.

You will need:
300g beetroot (peeled weight)
100g carrot (peeled weight)
200g light brown sugar
2 eggs
200ml sunflower oil
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
100g shelled walnut halves
1 lemon
100g low fat soft cream cheese
200g icing sugar

Method:
Pre-heat a fan oven to 160C. Prepare a muffin tray with paper cases.
Use a food processor with grater attachment to grate the peeled raw beetroot and carrot and place into a large bowl – use a fork to evenly disperse the carrot through the beetroot.
NB – set aside a large pinch of grated beetroot for the frosting.
Mix the brown sugar, eggs and sunflower oil together. Add in the plain flour, baking powder and cinnamon and mix well to a thick batter, pour this in on top of the grated carrot and beetroot. Grate in the zest of the lemon and add in the roughly chopped walnut halves. (Reserve a couple of walnuts to finely chop for decorating.)
Mix well to evenly combine everything – it’s thick and difficult to mix but you’ll get there.
Drop large dollops of the muffin mixture into the cases and bake in the hot oven for 25-30 minutes.
While the muffins cook make the frosting. Use a mini-chopper or a knife to finely chop the pinch of grated beetroot – this is being used to naturally colour the frosting.
Mix together the cream cheese, icing sugar, finely chopped beetroot and enough lemon juice to make a nice thick frosting – refrigerate until using.
Once the muffins are cooked, remove to cool completely on a wire tray before decorating with the cream-cheese frosting and a scattering of chopped walnuts.
Enjoy!
‘Til next time, Sheila.