Paid collaboration with Fazer Aito. These vegan and nutritious apple cinnamon muffins are yummy both as a snack and dessert. The nourishing secret is homemade seed and nut flour! As a liquid in the muffin batter I’m using Fazer Aito Oat drink, a mildly sweet oat-based drink perfect for baking.
Apple Cinnamon Muffins – make them nutritious!
I love all seed and nut bits in muffins making them more rustic, but my kids don’t. So I’ve thought of clever ways to add seeds and nuts to muffin and cake batters, because I simply love how easily they make sweet treats more nourishing.
Homemade seed and nut flour
My homemade seed and nut flour is one of the clever tricks I’ve figured out along the way feeding very picky children. The coarse flour is simply ground seeds and nuts, preferably a mixture of three-five different seeds and nuts to have a good combination of vitamins, minerals and healthy fats. Seeds and nuts also contain a good amount of protein (about 20 grams / 100 grams)!
There are many uses for this seed and nut flour. Here are my favorites:
- Overnight oats – click here for a basic recipe to prep a large batch of oats and a yummy cinnamon apple overnight oats recipe too!
- Bread batters – this is perfect for a seed and nut loaf or other loafs and also for bread rolls and flat breads.
- Pancake batter – replace part of basic flour with this nourishing flour.
- Smoothies – I’ve added a generous scoop to my breakfast smoothie every day for a week now. The smoothie keeps me full for hours!
- Muffin and cake batters – add seed and nut flour when you would add almond flour, it’s basically the same, just more nourishing with the variety of seeds and nuts!
- Soups or sauces – if you’re making a soup or sauce in a blender, you can easily hide some nutritious seed and nut flour in the soup / sauce too.
Snack or dessert or snack dessert?
The sweetener in these muffins is one of my favorites: coconut sugar! Together with the subtle apple flavor and cinnamon coconut sugar gives a lovely caramel touch to these muffins.
I classify these apple cinnamon muffins both as snack and dessert. I used a regular amount of sweetener but the overall feel of these muffins is pretty wholesome thanks to the seed and nut flour. That is when they are eaten without a frosting. With frosting these muffins turn into a lush dessert!
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Ingredients
Homemade seed and nut flour
- 100 g / 3,5 oz each:
- sunflower seeds
- pumpkin seeds
- walnuts
- cashews
- almonds
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- 2 chia eggs: 2 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 5,5 tbsp water This is a very thick chia egg.
- 200 ml / 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp Fazer Aito Oat Drink
- 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 120 grams / 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
- 100 grams / 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp seed and nut flour
- 160 grams / 3/4 cups coconut sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 100 grams / 3,5 oz or 3 small grated apples with extra water squeezed out (measured after squeezing)
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp neutral oil of choice
Frosting
- equal amounts of vegan cream cheese and cookie butter spread (Biscoff spread)
- I used 100 g / 3,5
Instructions
- Blend seeds and nuts in a food processor until you have a course flour. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 190 C / 375 F.
- Line a muffin tin pan with paper muffin forms. I have a muffin pan for 12 muffins, and this recipe makes 10.
- Mix chia eggs and set aside to thicken.
- Mix Fazer Aito Oat drink and ACV. Set aside while you prep the other ingredients.
- Combine dry ingredients: flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom and salt.
- Grate apples and squeeze out the extra liquid. Measure grated apples after squeezing. It's important to get the right amount of grated apple or else the muffins might not bake properly.
- Mix grated apples, oat drink-ACV and oil into the dry ingredients.
- Pour the muffin batter into the muffin forms about 3/4 full.
- Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean (there should be no raw batter but a few crumbs of muffin is okay)
- Let muffins cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before removing them onto a cooling rack.
- These muffins are very soft and moist right after baking but they will firm up after cooling.
- Mix frosting ingredients and pipe or spread on top of muffins. Enjoy!
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