Ah Ottolenghi, my obsession with him continues; he can do no wrong! Between my foodie friends and I, we’ve cooked our way through most of the book, even the recipes without pictures, and none were short of spectacular. I’ve visited the restaurant for brunch; always in time to see the counter fill up with beautiful food. See this blog post from Nordljus for lovely pictures.

As part of my research for The Breakfast Club, I baked these little muffins.  Carrot, apple and pecan muffins to be precise;  topped with a buttery, seedy, crumble topping. Sweet enough to eat at any time of day, but wholesome enough for breakfast. My office of hungry developers were very pleased with the result…

As usual with Ottolenghi, don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients; just trust that it will generally always be delicious. On closer inspection, you’ll probably see, as I did, that you have most of the ingredients to hand. I also substituted the seeds in the topping for a seedy sprinkle I had lurking in the cupboard, so don’t feel you need to be a slave to the combination, you’re just looking for the right amount of crunch and texture.

Ingredients

For the topping:
50g butter
75g plain flour
25g light muscavado sugar
50g oats
15g sunflower seeds
25g pumpkin seeds
15g black sesame seeds
1 tsp water
1 tsp oil
1½ tbsp honey

for the muffins:
300g flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch salt
4 eggs
160ml oil
280g sugar
2 tsp vanilla
220g carrot, peeled, grated
200g bramley apples, grated
100g pecans
100g sultanas
50g coconut

• Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
• First, make the crumble topping. Mix the butter, flour and sugar together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the oats, seeds, water, oil and honey until looks like a wet, sandy mixture.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together.
• Whisk the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla togther in a large bowl. Stir in the carrot, apple, flour mixture, pecans, sultanas and coconut.
• Spoon the batter into a muffin tray, then sprinkle over the crumble topping.
• Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown.

Tags: apple, carrots, coconut, pecan

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