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Blender-Batter Muffins

Blender-Batter Muffins - Quirky Cooking

Blueberry Spelt Muffins

This is the base recipe I use for my muffins, adding in berries, or nuts, or choc chips, or spices, or crumble topping, or whatever I feel like.  It’s a very versatile and healthy recipe – gluten free (or low gluten, depending which grains you use), dairy free and naturally sweetened. You start with the whole grains (spelt, brown rice, barley, kamut, or a mixture of these…), grind the grains in the Thermomix, mix with the liquids, leave to soak overnight (or at least a few hours), then add the remaining ingredients.  (Check out the variations below for ideas.)  I like to start it at night so we can have muffins for breakfast (…and morning tea – it makes a lot!!).

This recipe is inspired by Sue Gregg’s Blender Batter Baking recipes in Sue Gregg’s ‘Breakfasts’ cookbook. (I love Sue’s cookbooks – this one has nearly 300 pages of healthy, delicious breakfast recipes!!)  I used to use my homemade rice-almond milk with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to substitute for the buttermilk in her recipe, but I decided to cut out a step and make the milk at the same time as I made the muffins… so instead of buttermilk, I add a handful of raw almonds, a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, and water.  It all gets ground up and soaked with the grains, and works just fine! If you can’t have nuts, sunflower seeds work just as well.

Soaking the grains in the liquids overnight improves digestibility and vitamin absorption.  You can either leave the batter to soak overnight in the Thermomix, or remove it to a glass bowl, which is what I prefer to do.

Note: You can find fine sea salt for this recipe in my online store here!

Blender-Batter Muffins
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Ingredients
  1. 290g whole spelt grain (or kamut, hulled barley, brown rice, quinoa or a mixture of grains)
  2. 40g raw almonds (or sunflower seeds)
  3. 160g water
  4. 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  5. 20g macadamia oil (or light olive oil)
  6. 200g raw honey
  7. 2 eggs
  8. 2 tsps baking powder
  9. 3/4 tsp baking soda
  10. 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
  11. 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
  1. Place half the grain in the Thermomix and grind on speed 9 for 1 minute, or until finely ground. Remove to a bowl and repeat with the remainder of the grain. (This is so you don't overload the blades.)
  2. Add the flour in the bowl back into the Thermomix jug, add in raw almonds, water, apple cider vinegar, macadamia oil, raw honey and blend for 1 minute, speed 8.
  3. Leave batter to soak overnight, or for about 7 hours.
  4. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 F), and grease muffin trays (or you can use ramekins for extra large muffins).
  5. Add eggs to batter and mix for 1 minutes at speed 8.
  6. Mix in baking powder, baking soda, fine sea salt and cinnamon briefly, for 3 seconds on speed 5.
  7. Fill greased muffin trays (or ramekins) almost full with batter. Sprinkle the top of muffins with Rapadura and cinnamon (optional), and place in oven for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from tins.
Quirky Cooking https://quirkycooking.com.au/
Variations:

– NUT FREE: instead of the almonds and water, use 200g rice milk.

– Berry muffins: add berries by sprinkling them on top of batter in tins and pressing in slightly – they will sink in a little while cooking.  You can also sprinkle with Rapadura & cinnamon if you wish.

– Chocolate chip muffins: replace cinnamon with 1 tsp vanilla extract; stir in 1 cup of Rapadura sweetened choc chips with baking powder.  (Berries AND choc chips is nice too!)

– Nut muffins: add chopped nuts with the baking powder, etc, but only mix in briefly.

– Apple muffins: increase the cinnamon to 1 1/2 tsp, add 1/4 tsp nutmeg; add 1 peeled and diced apple to batter with baking powder; sprinkle with cinnamon & Rapadura before baking.

– Banana muffins: add another 20g oil, 1 1/2 very ripe bananas, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and blend, then soak overnight.  Only needs 1 egg.  Optional: add a handful of chopped walnuts/pecans and/or dark choc chips with baking powder.

– Orange date muffins: replace cinnamon with 1 tsp vanilla extract; fold in 1 peeled, diced orange and a handful diced dates with baking powder.

– Orange nut muffins: peel orange skin into Thermomix, add a little Rapadura and cinnamon, grind speed 9 until finely grated.  Use 170g orange juice instead of almonds, water & vinegar in batter.  Add 1 tsp vanilla extract to batter.  Add a handful of chopped walnuts or pecans and a handful of sultanas with the baking powder.  Can also add a handful of grated carrot.  Before baking, sprinkle with the orange zest, Rapadura & cinnamon.

23 thoughts on “Blender-Batter Muffins

  1. Cat J B says:

    Ooh, yum yum yum! I like that you’re soaking things, I do with bread things but have not so far with cakes, cookies or muffins. Now I will, thanks!

  2. Jenny says:

    Visiting you back from MPM! Thanks for coming to my site. I am going to continue to look around yours some…your pictures of food look so yummy!

  3. Rachel says:

    When you say ‘leave them to soak’ you mean just in the honey and apple cider vinegar right? You don’t add any whey, yoghurt or lemon to help it ferment at all?
    They sound really good. An all ’round muffin recipe is just what I’m looking for!

  4. Jo Whitton says:

    Yes Rachel, it doesn’t have to have whey or anything, the vinegar is enough acid, so just leave it to soak like that. I haven’t tried all these variations – so if any need tweaking, let me know!! 🙂

  5. Anonymous says:

    Help!

    Do you know the conversions for the weight in grams to volume in cups?

    I’d love to try this recipe, but I’m not confident with the conversions.

    Thanks,
    Kimber

  6. Jo Whitton says:

    Hi Kimber,
    Here’s the amounts in cups for you… I may have changed them a bit so you might have to play around with it.

    Almonds, water & vinegar = 3/4 cup buttermilk OR rice-almond milk + 1 tsp vinegar.

    210g honey = 1/2 cup (original recipe was 1/3 cup)

    20g oil = 2 Tbspns

    290g grain = 1 1/2 cups grain OR 2 1/4 cups flour

    Hope that helps 🙂

  7. Rachel says:

    So I have to tell you, we love these muffins! First I made the banana ones and they turned out great and then last night, I wanted pumpkin muffins so badly…so I did the banana muffin variation again but instead of bananas, I added 1 cup of pureed pumpkin and a teaspoon of stevia powder. I was sure it wouldn’t work but they did! Yes! a healthy muffin recipe that works and my little tiny toaster over sized oven can handle!

  8. Jo Whitton says:

    I’m so glad you liked them, Rachel! I never thought of pumpkin ones, I’ll have to add that to the list – yum! What about ‘hot cross bun’ muffins, for Easter? Now there’s an idea…

  9. Jordanna Zareb says:

    I have just made these and they are fabulous. I have taken on the gluten free challenge for 30 days to see how I feel. I am loving it. I made these in my TM and used a mixture of brown rice, buckwheat and quinoa, I made them in the morning and put the batter in the fridge in the TM bowl whilst I went to work. On my return I whipped them up before dinner with frozen berries on top as suggested. HEAVEN! and even my partner and Mr 6 (wheat addicts) gave them a good go! Well done you again! Thanks 🙂

  10. Jo Whitton says:

    Oh, well done Jordanna! So glad you liked them!! It’s amazing the variety you can do with them – never two batches the same 😀 You’re welcome 🙂

  11. Anonymous says:

    Hi Jo
    What would you suggest to replace the almonds with for a school friendly nut free version? Would sunflower seeds do? Thanks heaps, love your recipes 🙂

  12. StaceyCD says:

    I was just wondering if I should cover the batter when soaking overnight? Also if my spelt is already ground into flour do I still use 290g?

  13. Fiona Elliott says:

    Hi again, worked out the honey thing its not as much as i thought. Was just wandering if you or anyone has tried these egg free using chia or linseed?

    Cheers fee

  14. Jo Whitton says:

    Hi Stacey, yes, flour and grain are the same weight – they will be different volume, but the same weight. And yes, cover the batter overnight. 🙂

    Hi Fiona, honey does weigh a lot, so it seems too much when you look at the weight! 🙂 I haven’t tried chia, but if you do let us know how you go. Thanks!

  15. Fiona Elliott says:

    Good morning, well i did it egg free everyone liked them. My analysis from original recipe: they had the same texture, didn’t rise as much, were a little glugy when eaten. My flour mix was 1/3 wholemeal spelt, 1/3 white spelt, 1/3 brown rice flour. For egg replacement 2 tbsp of chia with 6 tbsp water. It did need a little more to get the vortex thing going. Overall pretty pleased. Next time i will replace the wholemal spelt with almond meal and see how they go.

  16. Tracey Horrigan says:

    these muffins were the best i have done with wholemeal spelt flour. i did the banana ones and added 100g dates and 100g honey and were sweet enough.Ilso did your almond rice milk and used the left over of that. they were light and fluffy and kids loved them which are the toughest critics

    cheers Jo love your website

  17. SarahT says:

    Hi Jo,

    I am currently on the FAILSAFE elimination diet which meant I had to make a few changes to the recipe – I used cashews instead of almonds, and citric acid with a little extra water instead of apple cider vinegar. I also replaced the honey with a small amount of maple syrup – although I think next time I will add more or use golden syrup as it wasn’t very sweet. I also put some pear – but will definitely add more next time with some brown sugar. Overall the muffins turned out fantastic! The texture was perfect. I have been eating them with a dollop of pear jam in the center and a quick zap in the microwave. So good! Thanks for the recipe!

  18. Joyce Mock says:

    I’m so glad I found this thread. Is it OK to soak overnight right in the Thermomix bowl? It would sure be easier but the non-Thermomix communities say it has to be in a glass bowl. I would much rather use my TM. Does metal affect the soaking process? Thank you!!

  19. Linda says:

    Hi Jo,

    I have just made you almond/rice milk and noticed you mentioned in could use the pulp in any blender batter recipes.

    If I were to do this in this recipe, where would it be added and what steps in this recipe would not need to be taken?

    Thanks

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