We have had an unusually intense relationship with these muffins for the past couple of months. Different varieties of them have been baked almost every weekend morning in our home. I blamed it on that the recipe needed to be perfected, but ahem, this particular version is actually very similar to my first version (they have however been altered a lot in between). The basic idea was pretty clear to me from the beginning; I wanted a muffin that we could enjoy for breakfast without feeling that we actually were eating dessert in the morning (which I am pretty certain most people that eat muffins for breakfast feel). Of course, muffin by definition is a dessert, but I at least only wanted to fill them with ingredients that normally made an appearance on our breakfast table. So, no artificial sweeteners, only bananas and a few dates. I wanted it to be simple to make and I also wanted the recipe to be gluten free.
The result is a kind of mash-up between a banana pancake, oatmeal, granola and our turmeric lassi. They have a wonderful rich walnut flavor with a turmeric and blueberry twist. They are sweet, although in a perfectly breakfast kind of way. One muffin leaves you quite satisfied, but I often bring another one as a second breakfast to-go.
This recipe can very easily be altered, so I have gathered some recipe notes:
• One or two grated carrots can be a delicious addition.
• The granola crumble is optional (although very delicious) and can be left out.
• If you don’t have any problems with gluten, the buckwheat flour+arrowroot can be replaced with an equal amount of spelt flour.
• The eggs can be replaced with chia seeds or flax seeds following the ratio 1 tbsp chia/flax + 3 tbsp water = 1 egg.
• The blueberries can obviously be replaced with other berries. Blackberries would be good.
• If you don’t like or are allergic to walnuts, you can replace them with sunflower seeds.
• The dates can be replaced with 3-4 tbsp honey. You can also add a little honey along with the dates if you prefer a sweeter muffin.
Turmeric & Blueberry Breakfast Muffins with a Granola Topping
Makes 12 large or 15 smaller
This makes a rather large batch for our small family, so we usually freeze half of them.
Dry ingredients
100 g / 1 cup walnuts
85 g /1 cup rolled oats, use gluten free if intolerant
90 g / 2/3 cup buckwheat flour + 2 tbsp arrowroot (or potato starch)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp turmeric (use a little less if you are not used to the flavor)
1 tsp freshly ground cardamom
½ tsp sea salt
a pinch black pepper
Wet ingredients
160 ml / 2/3 cup buttermilk or plant yogurt
80 ml / 1/3 cup olive oil or butter
2 ripe bananas, mashed
5 fresh dates, mashed
3 large eggs (or 3 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 9 tbsp water)
A large handful blueberries, frozen or fresh
Granola topping
1/3 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp olive oil/coconut oil
1 tbsp runny honey
Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or grease the pan with oil or butter. Add walnuts and rolled oats to a food processor or blender (or mortle) and mix quickly into a coarse flour. Transfer to a large mixing bowl together with the rest of the dry ingredients. Add buttermilk, oil, bananas and dates to the food processor or blender and mix until smooth, then transfer to the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients. Crack the eggs in a separate bowl and beat them for about a minute before adding them as well. Use a spatula to carefully fold everything until combined. Divide the batter into the muffin tins, drop a bunch of blueberries on top of each muffin and gently push them down a bit. Mix together the granola crumble in a small bowl and add it on top of the muffins. Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Best enjoyed still warm from the oven.
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