RAISIN AND COURGETTE CHICKPEA AND OAT MUFFINS

 

 A vegan muffin creation that turned out right first time! Nick whipped up some Chestnut, Carrot and Ginger muffins with Pumpkin Seeds from East by West this week (p.g 73). Mahi ate two in one go and wanted more, and they were gone by the evening. I fancied muffins again the next day but wanted to make a start on the mountain of chickpea/gram flour building up in my cupboard from making barfi and dhokla (page 231 in East by West)  (I keep bringing bags of it home from filming) and to try mixing it with oats to make a batter. According to Ayurveda, chickpeas are quite dry in nature and as oats are mucilaginous, I thought this would be a good balance. Plus teaming a legume with a grain creates a complete protein in terms of available amino acids so overall it’s a winning combo. Chickpea flour also has great binding properties so if you use it correctly you can create something fluffy that doesn’t require the eggs, gluten or dairy usually needed to get the job done. When I say correctly there isn’t really a magic formula (that I know of) so experimented knowing that even if they came out flat as a pancake and dense as a brick that if raisins were in there I’d still eat them!

So I did a bit of chickpea flour and a bit of rolled oats (what was left of a packet hence the random amounts), threw in raising agents, water, grated courgette* and of course said raisins. Then extra virgin olive oil, a bit of salt and maple syrup, some ginger and cinnamon for digestion and left it to sit for 10 mins so that the chickpea flour was well hydrated. I gave it another quick mix (as the mixture is lumpy and the liquid can start to separate from the oat, raisin and courgette ‘bits’) before dividing into cupcake holders. I baked for 20 mins (peeked at 15 and they looked too good to be true!) then took them out as they had domed beautifully and were brown enough and then, because they seemed a bit moist and possibly collapsible inside I let them sit for 10 mins while I took some snaps.

Well I broke into one, ate half and bragged to Nick that I’d nailed it. They were sweet, moist and fluffy and akin to carrot cake in texture but rock bun in taste. We love them and I hope you do too.

METHOD

1. Put the dry ingredients; gram flour, oats, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and salt into a bowl and mix well. 

2. Add the maple syrup, water and olive oil and stir until smooth before mixing in the raisins and grated courgette. Leave the batter to rest for 10 minutes or so so that the gram flour and oats can fully soak up the liquid. 

3. Preheat the oven to 170C Fan and line a cupcake tray with 9 liners (I used silicone - haven’t tested with paper yet but I imagine these would need greasing).

4. Stir the mixture again and divide between liners. I placed a heaped tablespoon of mixture into each and then topped up with the remaining mixture.

5. Bake for 25 mins, then leave to rest for 10 mins before removing the muffins from the cupcake liners and enjoying warm or cooling on a rack.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 9 muffins

220g courgette, grated (medium-large one)

120g chickpea/gram flour

130g rolled oats

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp baking powder 

1/4tsp sea salt

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 cup maple syrup

¼ cup water 

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

2/3rds cup raisins

 

East by West tips:

*If you need to be sneaky re the courgette then use the fine tooth on a grater (and consider peeling off the dark green skin!), otherwise the usual size is perfect.

Delicious at room temperature, but even better warm. Store in an airtight container once completely cooled for up to 3 days.

I really like the crunchy muffin top so if this is your thing you can take the muffins out of their liners after 25 mins baking, turn them over and pop them back in for 5 mins to get crunchy bottoms too.

 
 
VEGETARIAN, CELEBRATION, VEGAN, SWEETSJasmine Hemsley