Plum & Cardamom Muffins

Each week I make a batch of muffins to have in the freezer for my husband to take to work. He takes one out each morning, wraps it in gladwrap and by the time morning tea comes round, the muffin is nicely defrosted for eating. He likes muffins to have a healthy component and I like to try new recipes, so often I find I am creating muffins with a healthy bent for his eating pleasure.

I made these muffins on Sunday, using canned plums that were leftover from Saturday night’s dinner party (more about that later in the week). I used the syrup that the plums are canned in as part of the liquid for the muffins and that worked out fantastically, although the muffins had a slight pink tinge to them! I used cardamom as my spice. Cardamom is a fairly strong flavour and not everyone likes it – you could use ginger or cinnamon instead.

The healthy bits are the addition of bran and wholemeal flour, and if I am making muffins purely for my husband to eat, no matter what the recipe says, I only ever add one egg and ¼ cup oil for the egg and fat component. This works well, although unless you are freezing the muffins, they probably wouldn’t keep that well for more than a day or two due to having less fat in them.

My husband thought these muffins were great.



Plum and Cardamom Muffins

1 c wholemeal flour
½ c plain flour
½ c bran
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cardamom
¾ c sugar
one can of drained plums, diced (reserve the juice)
reserved plum juice made up to one cup with milk
1 egg
¼ c oil (I use rice bran)

· Combine dry ingredients
· Beat juice, milk, egg and oil together with a fork
· Add diced plums and liquid to the dry ingredients, mixing just to combine
Spoon into greased muffin tins (I made 11) and bake at 200c for 15 minutes or until cooked