Muffin Monday: Beet & Fennel Muffins

I know, I know… it sounds like I should be making soup, not muffins, but this combination of special ingredients when paired with our old friends  Zucchini, Almond and  Blueberry made for a nice flavor profile in this week’s Muffin Monday selection.

INGREDIENTS:

•  1 1/2 cup whole wheat Flour
• 3/4 cup whole Almonds
• 1 TBSP Baking Power
• 1 cup Non Fat Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 Stick MELTED Butter
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Grated Beets
• 1 cup Grated Zucchini
• 1/3 cup chopped Fennel Fronds
• 2/3 cup slightly mashed Blueberries.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the muffin cups by spraying with cooking spray.

2. Grate the Beets and Zucchini. Finely chop the Fennel Fronds.  Gently mash the Blueberries with a fork. Set aside.

3. In a blender process the Almonds until they are finely ground..

4. In a large bowl combine the Flour, ground Almonds and Baking Powder.

5. In the blender (because why dirty another bowl when you’re gonna have to clean that blender anyway) pour the Milk, Vanilla, Eggs, melted Butter and Sugar. Blend until smooth.

6. Add the liquid to the dry and mix well.

7. Gently fold the chopped/grated vegetables and the mashed Blueberries into the batter.

8. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups (this recipe made enough batter to generously fill the standard 12 muffin tin plus two  extra muffin cups).

9. Bake for 35 minutes until the tops are brown and the muffins pass the toothpick test. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 to 10 minutes.

The blueberries and sugar give these veggie intense muffins plenty of sweetness. Tester Maggie S. calls them “Delicious and filling.” There’s a nice firm muffin top and the inside is flaky and light. The texture, says Maggie, is “Perfect.”  Fellow tester Andrew S. agreed, he loved the texture. As for the taste? “The aftertaste was interesting” he said, ” — kind of savory after the sweetness of the berries. And” he added “zucchini is always a good thing.”

Beets, like zucchini, seem to lose themselves in the delightfulness of muffindom. None of us could really point to the muffins and say “Hey, you put beets in there, didn’t you?” The muffins just taste yummy. As for the fennel there is a hint of fennel’s licorice flavor, but it is far from overwhelming.

Related articles

• Muffin Monday: Blueberry, Lemon, Zucchini (ritalovestowrite.com)
• Muffin Monday Double Berry Muffins (ritalovestowrite.com)
• Muffin Monday: Blueberry Cornbread Muffins (ritalovestowrite.com)
• Muffin Monday Banana Cherry Muffins DF (ritalovestowrite.com)
• Muffin Monday: Ginger Molasses Muffins (ritalovestowrite.com)
• National blueberry muffin day (eatocracy.cnn.com)

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