Week 15 Dish 2: Vegan pear walnut muffins

I went to the Enchanted Woodland in Syon park earlier this evening. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Syon park is famous for having many different and rare trees, and every year for 3 weekends they open the park in the evening with all the trees illuminated in lights of different colours. It really looks spectacular!

(The photo really doesn't do the park justice)

Earlier in the day before my exciting evening I baked pear and walnut muffins. It's difficult to find exotic fruits now so I thought it would be best to make something with pears which are so readily available. This recipe doesn't have a huge amount of sugar and the batter (I licked the bowl at the end of course :p) was not overly sweet, but when I bit into the muffin the taste was so amazing! The pears had become really soft and tender and the sweetness really came through making the muffins divine, especially when hot and fresh from the oven. Oh so good!!

Makes 12

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup whole meal flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 cup finely chopped ripe but firm pears (about 2 medium pears)

1/3 cup walnuts pieces

3/4 cup soya milk

2 tbsp vegetable/ canola/ rapeseed oil

1 tbsp linseeds

4 tbsp water

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and line a muffin tray with muffin cups.
2. Grin the linseed with water until smooth and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flours, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the pears and walnuts and toss gently to coat.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the soya milk, oil and linseed mixture, and pour this into the dry ingredients stirring until just combined.
5. Divide the batter equally amongst the muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack though I recommend you eat them while hot and fresh!

Original recipe: Pear walnut muffins