pear, lemon and raspberry spelt flour muffins

Soooo, it’s been a couple days since I hinted as to an amazing recipe I was about to make. And they were amazing. I’ve already shared a flourless chocolate cupcake recipe with you because I have a friend who’s allergic to gluten. Now, ta-da! Introducing spelt flour! It’s really nice flour – spelt is an ancient form of wheat that doesn’t have as much gluten as modern-day wheat, so it’s ok for people who are allergic. So I made muffins to share with both my house (eek! four people, three of whom I barely know! Let’s make muffins so they like me!) and my internship group (we’re spending every Thursday together. By midafternoon, we need a sugar hit.)

And so. I knew I wanted to make muffins because I’d made spelt scones before and they worked really well, so I knew muffins would benefit from the sturdiness of the flour and it wouldn’t matter too much if they didn’t rise as well. And I’m trying to add as much fruit and vegetables into my diet as I possibly can, because being a vegetarian, variety is even more important.

Pear, lemon and raspberry spelt flour muffins

So I got the base recipe from Smitten Kitchen but I tweaked it around so much it’s barely recognisable. I also used mini muffin pans because I couldn’t find large ones in the supermarket. I do not recommend this. They turned out fine but I just ate about five of them in one sitting and this could have been rectified had I made larger ones – they are much more satisfying.

Yield: I got 56 mini muffins. I suspect you could get around 24 large muffins. Deb got 18. Use your judgement, and don’t skimp when you’re putting the mixture in the cases. I also feel that 1 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon was too much, although this could be because the lid fell off the container I was using to measure it out so I may have gotten a whole lot more than 1 1/2 tablespoons. Use your judgement, again.

2 1/2 cups spelt flour*
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
large pinch salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
150gm unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed, plus extra to sprinkle over the top
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups greek style yoghurt
2 corella pears, peeled, cored and chopped
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
about 1/2 cup frozen raspberries.

Preheat oven to 220ºC. Set out paper cases in two 12 muffin muffin pans.

Mix together first 5 ingredients (dry) and set aside. Cream butter, then add sugars and beat, scraping down sides. Add egg and do the same. Gently mix in yoghurt and fold into dry ingredients. Mix in pears, raspberries and lemon rind and stir until just incorporated. Fill muffin cases – like I said, don’t skimp. Spelt flour doesn’t rise too much, so feel free to fill to the top. Liberally sprinkle extra brown sugar over the top of the muffins.

If you’re making mini muffins like me, bake at 220ºC for 5 mins, then lower heat to 200ºC and bake another 5 mins. If you’re making large muffins like I should have, bake at 220ºC for 10 mins and at 200ºC for about 10-15 mins. Take out of the oven and let sit for about 5 mins, then take out of pans and let cool on a rack before packing them away, if you can bear not to gobble them up all at once.

*If you don’t have spelt flour, don’t worry. You can use all plain flour or one cup plain flour and one cup whole-wheat flour instead.