Apple Cinnamon Millet Muffins & Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Rather than playing the blame game, in which I would come up with a list of reasons why I haven't blogged IN OVER A YEAR, I am going to take my own high road and jump right into a new post. So there.

A while ago, my friend Sarah and I participated in a weekend yoga retreat at Shanti on Wolfe Island near Kingston, Ontario. I have written about the retreat in two blog posts already (http://richlerrecipes.blogspot.com/2014/10/herb-buttermilk-biscuits.html AND http://richlerrecipes.blogspot.ca/2014/10/red-lentil-dhal.html ).

I remember fondly the ‘silent breakfast’ in the mornings and Sarah and I trying hard to keep it together as the other guest at our table would not stop talking. All the yogis were giving her dirty looks (in a non-judgmental yogi way, of course). Hilarity. I also remember the walking meditation and me, after walking for about 15 minutes, walking right back into my room because I COULD NOT HANDLE WALKING MEDITATION. It’s just not for me, OK? Get off my back!

Since that retreat, I have tried and tested many of the recipes in the Shanti cookbook that I brought home with me. Pretty much everything has been fabulous and I make our favourites often.

Today I am sharing the Shanti recipe for Apple Cinnamon Millet muffins. On the day that Sarah and I ventured into town for a walk, these muffins were waiting for us upon our return. There was a basket on the food table just as we walked in the door and the foyer smelled like apple pie. The muffins were nestled in a plaid napkin, with preserves and knives alongside ready and waiting to be used. We each had a muffin and wondered if it would be greedy to go back for another one. Yes, yes it would, so we didn’t. Instead, I bought the cookbook and made them as soon as I returned to Toronto.

The recipe in the book is for Apple Cinnamon Millet muffins, and I am also providing an adapted recipe for banana chocolate chip muffins. As always, my adaptations to the original recipe appear in brackets.

Important to note is that if you have any kind of thyroid issue you probably should leave the millet out (http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/foods-and-hypothyroidism/). You’ve been warned.

Shanti’s Apple Cinnamon Millet Muffins

Ingredients for the muffins:

Dry

2 cups spelt flour

2/3 cup millet

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp sea salt

Wet

1 cup non-dairy milk (I use almond milk or buttermilk – all to say, you can go dairy or not – it’s all good)

½ cup apple sauce (I use unsweetened or I puree some of the baked apples in lieu of the sauce)

½ cup maple syrup (this can easily be cut back)

1/3 cup coconut oil (I melt it for easier blending)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups baked apples (Or any fruit – you can use berries if you like, or peaches, or rhubarb. Fresh or frozen, but not thawed.)

Ingredients for the baked apples:

5 apples, peeled and diced (3 cups)

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp cinnamon (I also add pinches of mace, nutmeg, allspice, and powdered ginger)

1-2 tbsp brown sugar or maple syrup (I leave this out completely. Apples are sweet enough.)

For the baked apples:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Peel and dice the apples into 1 inch cubes (I don’t quite make them into cubes. They are more like chunks.) Place the apples in a baking dish with the coconut oil and the spices (and the sugar, if desired). Stir and bake for 30 minutes, stirring at least once during that time.

I actually do this on the stovetop in a pot. I stir often, on medium heat. It doesn’t take 30 minutes. Up to you.

For the muffins:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees farenheit. Line muffin cups with oil, butter, or a spray of oil. This recipe claims it makes 12 muffins but I consistently get a yield of 16.

Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Whisk together the dry ingredients.

Measure and then melt the coconut oil in the microwave (about 45 sec).

Whisk together the wet ingredients (except the baked apples) in another bowl or use a blender (I like the blender).

Combine wet with dry until just absorbed. 

Fold in the baked apples.

Spoon the batter into the muffin pans.

Bake for 25 minutes. Let them sit in the pan for 1 minute before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool. You might need the help of a knife to get them out of the pan.

Try not to eat them all in one sitting.

P.S. These spoil very quickly so I recommend keeping half the yield in the fridge, and the other half in the freezer.

The banana chocolate chip version is below:

Ingredients for the muffins:

Dry

2 cups spelt flour

2/3 cup millet (I leave the millet out of this recipe because my kids don’t like millet)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp sea salt

1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Wet

1 ¼ cup non-dairy milk (I increase the liquid because the bananas replacing the apple sauce are not as wet as the applesauce. You can use buttermilk or almond milk.)

½ cup mashed bananas (to replace the apple sauce)

1/4 cup maple syrup (less syrup because bananas are naturally sweet)

1/3 cup coconut oil (I melt it for easier blending)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups mashed banana

The method is the same.

Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl (except for the chocolate chips), and whisk together.

Measure and melt coconut oil. Measure rest of wet ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth (including the coconut oil).

Add wet to dry and whisk together until just blended.

Add chocolate chips.

Spoon into the prepared pans (I made 12 larger muffins this time), and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven, let cool for a minute before turning them out of the pan.

ENJOY EVERY BITE!

Raspberry Millet Muffins

On the last day of our yoga retreat when we returned from morning yoga in the yurt, there was a basket of something yummy on the big wooden table in the front hall. Whatever was in the basket was covered with a colourful napkin, and there was a sign next to the basket and a little ramekin as well. The ramekin had a couple of dollars in it. Interest piqued, and smelling something delicious, Sarah and I approached the table to read the sign.

It went something like this: muffins, homemade and fresh out of the oven. Please leave $2 and enjoy a muffin. An honour system for baked goods - how very Zen.

The Shanti yoga retreat also had a store of sorts, selling things like blankets made from yak wool, books on yoga and meditation, hand made soaps, lip balms, and salves. Yoga clothes and props, candles and incense. There was an exercise book (or 'scribbler' for you fellow Newfoundlanders) on the floor next to the credit card terminal, and a price list. If you wanted to buy something you just had to write it down and pay before you left. This is the kind of world I want to live in.

But I digress. Back to the muffins. We ran upstairs to our room hoping to find some coins and lucky for us, we did. $4 and two muffins later, we were replete. I pushed my chair back from the table and went to rinse my tea cup, then I noticed the Shanti cookbook open to the recipe for the muffins. That kind of sealed the deal - a cookbook would be coming home with me.

The recipe in the book is called Apple Cinnamon Millet Muffins, but the version we enjoyed was made with local blueberries that day, since that was what was on offer at the market on Wolfe Island. When I returned home I decided that I would make these muffins for myself. The challenge would be to make them without sugar.

I had decided (been inspired by Sarah, actually) to go sugar-free for a month when I returned from Shanti. So I had to modify the recipe to suit this dietary restriction. It was pretty easy to do and the muffins were still amazing. I made them on a Sunday afternoon and one warning for you bakers out there - by Wednesday they had mould growing on them and 6 whole muffins ended up in the compost. Sadness. So my advice to you would be to freeze whatever you don't consume on the first day. This of course, really makes you think about baked goods that you purchase from the grocery store. You know the ones that have a shelf life of 10 days or so? What do you think is in them to make them last that long? Indeed.

You've waited long enough. Here is the recipe for the muffins, my adaptations are in brackets, as always.

Ingredients

2 cups spelt flour
2/3 cup millet (looks kind of like big grains of cous cous)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

1 cup non-dairy milk (I used skim milk from a cow)
1/2 cup apple sauce (I used unsweetened applesauce)
1/2 cup maple syrup (I used 1/4 cup of pureed prunes, but next time I will use 1/2 cup as they could have been a tad sweeter)
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups fruit (either apples and cinnamon, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, or whatever you want! I used frozen raspberries.)

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and coat 12 muffin cups with a light coating of oil.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Whisk together the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl. Combine the wet with the dry and stir until the flour is just absorbed.

 Then fold in the fruit.

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy! And Namaste.

Apple Pie That Can Win A Contest

The King of Soup has another, lesser-known title: The Prince of Pie. A few years ago The Prince of Pie and I decided to have an apple pie bakeoff. This idea came as a result of a very successful visit to a local Ontario apple farm where we picked oodles of different types of apples. We thought it would be fun to try baking some pies with different kinds of apples in them to see which one tasted best.

The Prince of Pie has long been a braggart with regard to his pastry making skills. And I will admit that he does a good job. He gets very into his craft, refusing to use technology (a food processor) to help him, instead freezing his fingers over and over again in an ice water bath so as not to heat the pastry too much while mixing the ingredients. Me, not so much, I believe in using a Cuisinart all the way.

So we planned a dinner party and invited The Prince’s Mother and her spouse, as well as my own Mom. I don’t even remember what the meal was, just how competitive The Prince and I became in the kitchen with the pies.

At the end of the day, The Prince of Pie won the battle. He won for several reasons: 1) his pastry was flakier (I used all butter, he used all lard), 2) his filling was tarter (I used Honeycrisp apples and he used Spartan), and 3) his pie was prettier. As much as I like to believe I am not a sore loser, I was hurt. My own Mom voted against my pie (it was a blinded taste test, to be fair to both competitors and judges).

Later on, about a year later we had a rematch over lasagne. His was meat, mine vegetarian, and I won hands down (even the meat eaters preferred my lasagne). But I was still stinging from the pie battle. So last week we were expecting The Prince’s Mother and her spouse for dinner again. I decided to make a pie, just for fun (yeah, right!).

This time I decided to use half butter and half lard, because I believe the lard definitely makes the crust flaky, and the butter gives the crust a better taste. For the filling I used Granny Smith, a nice tart, firm apple. And I took some extra time to make it pretty, very pretty (I cut leaves out of pastry and everything!).

Well guess what? The Prince’s Mother, her spouse, and even The Prince himself all agreed it was one of the best, if not THE best apple pie they had ever tasted.

And it was.

The sweet scent of redemption smells not unlike an apple pie. MY apple pie.

Dvorah’s Apple Pie

For the crust (adapted from The Joy of Cooking):

Sift together: 2 cups all purpose flour and 1 tsp salt

Add 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp chilled butter and 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp lard (I use Tenderflake)

Cut the butter/lard into the flour mixture using a pastry blender, or use a food processor and pulse until mixture resembles pea-sized grains (this is what I did). You can also use your fingers to do this as described above in the story.

Then add 2 tbsp very cold water and pulse a few times until ingredients hold together. You may add 1 tsp more water if needed. You can wrap the dough in some plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter until you are ready to roll it out. Don't put it in the fridge because it will become too stiff.

Usually I take the easy way out and press the dough into the bottom of a springform pan, trying to build up the sides of the pie crust so it looks like a deep-dish crust. But this time, since I had a reputation to rebuild, I went all out and rolled my crust.

Roll out your pastry using a bit of flour on the rolling pin and a bit on the rolling surface – but not too much or your dough will be too stiff and will lose its’ flakiness.  In the photo below you can see that I used my pie plate to estimate the size that the dough needed to be to fill the plate.

Use the rolling pin to help you get the dough off of the counter and into the pie plate.

Yes, my bottom crust looks messy right now, but the great thing about pastry is that it is easy to repair (as long as it is not too dry). Patch it up with pieces of other dough – you don’t need to worry because no one will see the bottom crust.

Filling

5 – 6 cups apples (I used Granny Smith)

Peel the apples and core them. I use one of those nifty apple cutters that both cuts and cores at the same time. Then use a knife to cut each of those slices in half – that way the apples are all pretty much the same size. If you cut them too thin the filling will be mushy.

Taste the apples. If they are VERY tart, add 2/3 cup white or brown sugar. If they are VERY sweet only add ½ cup white or brown sugar. I used ¼ cup white and ¼ cup brown.

Also add 1/8 tsp salt and 1 to 1 ½ tbsp cornstarch (if apples are VERY juicy, use 1 ½ tbsp cornstarch, if apples are dry, as most Granny Smiths are, use only 1 tbsp).

Also add ¼ tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp nutmeg. Next time I might add some allspice and/or cloves as well.

If the apples are bland you can add 1 tbsp lemon juice or 1 tsp vanilla or ½ tsp grated lemon rind.

Mix the apples with all of these ingredients and then pour them into the pie plate that has the bottom layer of dough in it. Dot the apples with butter, then cover with the top layer of dough.

Trim the dough that is left hanging over the edge of the pie plate leaving ~1/3 inch overhang. Fold overhang under and use your fingers to make a fluted edge (you do this by pinching – see photo). Make sure you have a good thickness of dough on the fluted edge since it shrinks when it bakes.

 

Use leftover dough to make some decorations if desired. I made leaves. They came out looking very pretty once the pie was baked.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. You can either prick the top of the crust with a fork to make some holes for the steam to escape, or make some curvy slices in the crust like I did (see photo).

Bake the pie at 450 for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 and cook the pie for an additional 35 to 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it and if the crust looks too dark, you can lay a sheet of tin foil on top of it for the remainder of the cooking time. I baked it for 35 minutes because I knew I was going to reheat it later when it was time for dessert.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, or cheddar cheese, or just as it is. I promise you it will be delicious. Maybe even contest-worthy.