Banana, walnut & date wholemeal muffins

My new found excitement for wholemeal flour has taken me back to baking. I find cooking with wholemeal flour pretty intimidating, probably because I've eaten some rather bland, dense and dry wholemeal things in my time. On the flip side, I've eaten some really delicious wholemeal breads and pastries too... So down the rabbit hole I go... This recipe was easy and the result was moist and delicious!

My foray into wholemeal baking begins with  muffins! This recipe is from an awesome vegetarian cook book I bought while in Canada, called ""New Vegetarian Basics" by Nettie Cronish. It's full of recipes I would never think to create on my own.

This muffin recipe is more or less identical to the one in this book, except; (1) I added more walnuts (1 cup instead of 1/2 cup); (2) I didn't have cinnamon or all spice, so I used 4 tsp of mixed spice, instead of 2 tsp cinnamon & 1 tsp all spice and (3) she uses 1/4 cup molasses and 1/4 cup maple syrup, both of which are pretty expensive in Australia, so I used 1/2 a cup of golden syrup instead.

There are three tricks to baking a perfectly yummy muffin; (1) always mix your wet and dry ingredients separately; (2) when you combine the wet and dry - don't over mix the batter because it will make your muffins tough and dense and (3) keep a close eye on them in the oven, being careful to not over cook them and dry them out. I'm a big fan of testing regularly with a satay stick.

 

preheat your oven to 190 degrees

 

Ingredients

2 cups wholemeal flour

1 cup wheat germ

2 tsp baking powder

4 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large)

1 cup soy milk (full fat)

1/3 cup canola oil

1 egg

1/2 cup golden syrup

1/2 cup chopped dates

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

 

 

Take two bowls

 

In one bowl mix together the dry ingredients

(flour, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda & mixed spice)

 

In the other, whisk all the wet ingredients

(milk, bananas, oil, egg, golden syrup)

 stir the wet into the dry until it's almost all moistened

 

 

add the dates and walnuts - I cut mine very roughly, so my muffins were rather chunky!

 

stir until the batter is just combined

 

 

Spoon the mixture evenly into 12 greased muffin cups (I greased the tray with a little extra canola oil), bake at 190 degrees C for 15 to 20 minutes (until cake tester comes out clean).

 

cool in pan for 3-5 minutes then cool on a wire rack

 

 

Enjoy at your leisure