breakfast+snacks / recipes / sweet+desserts

What about being able to offer your family a muffin that could be a whole breakfast? Not one like those huge, sugar and white flour laden ones, with hidrogenated oils, so sweet, that the flavour doesn´t matter, they all taste the same. What they are really selling you is a bomb! I mean, you might think it will give you a lot of energy but in fact what you will really have is a high sugar pick that will then crash, letting your energy levels real low with all that refined ingredients. It won´t sustain you on the long way.

This is why it is so important to include whole carbohydrates in general and specially in bakery in such an urgent way, no matter if we are talking about cereal, fruits or vegetables, because their fiber will help our sugar levels to be more stable and as a result of this, we will feel more satisfied. But be careful! The food industry has already learnt that people are getting worried about their health and that is why they use their marketing expertise and write in the breakfast cereal´s labels (cereal for kids and adults as well), “made with wholemeal cereal” or “with lots of fiber”. Ok, that sounds great but what about the sugar??? Please, don´t let them deceive you…the refined sugar can be hidden under many different names: glucose, maltodextrine, corn syrup, dextrose…And this is the real reason behind the childhood obesity epidemic.

Well, well, with that said, I am going to focus on today´s recipe because I can feel how my anger is building up.

In this recipe, if we talk about the sugar, I am using a very small amount of maple syrup (the genuine one!), together with the granola honey. These two non-refined liquid sweeteners are my favorite ones. The other two things that also give sweetness to the dough are the banana, that plays an important part in the final texture (because the dough doesn´t have any egg), and also the cut fruit.

In fact, a genuine muffin consists of a part of solid ingredients, a part of liquid and fruits. It shouldn´t be mixed too much so we get a good crumb and a nice crust. In this particular case, the crumble is optional and I understand that is something else to get done but I would advise you to try it, even if only one time, because it contributes to the whole with a good texture and flavour.

And what else can I say? After fighting with the recipe time and time again, I feel that all the necessary ingredients are in my breakfast memory: fruit, oats or wholemeal spelt, yogurt, granola, seeds, honey, ginger and lemon…maybe I should add tea to the dough as well! Aha!! I think I am gonna get back to the kitchen to try a new muffin recipe…

….green tea and lime

…earl grey and peach

…matcha tea and strawberries