Strawberry boost muffins

Sometimes you just really need cake.

Yesterday was one of those afternoons.

And since I had a mountain of rapidly deteriorating strawberries and I wanted something that would actually fill me up long enough to last until dinner, I made up these little guys. They are sweet and filling – a few tweaks on my pear surprise muffins (I made the ‘surprise’ dark chocolate part with half of the batch for the kids too).

125g stewed/tinned pears (drained from their juices)
115g ripe strawberries
50g vegan butter/tasteless coconut oil, melted
160g milk of choice (I love unsweetend vanilla almond milk here)
1 medium overripe banana
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (omit this if you use the vanilla almond milk)
1 1/2 cups wholemeal spelt flour OR 1 1/4 cups GF flour mix (I like Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose) plus 1/4 cup almond/seed meal
1/2 cup rolled oats OR desiccated coconut OR rolled quinoa (mill these first if you want to hide the ‘bits’) – you can also use nut or seed meal here
2 tbsp flax seeds (Optional)
1.5 tsp GF baking powder
pinch pink salt flakes
OPTIONAL: 2-4 tbsp coconut sugar or maple syrup – if you have a sweet tooth.

Into your blender/processor/nutribullet/thermal cooker place the strawberries, pear, banana, Nuttelex/oil, vanilla, milk and syrup (if using). Blitz until smooth (Speed 7, 12 seconds)

In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (Speed 4, 6 seconds)

Add the dry mix to the wet and mix to combine (Speed 4, 8 seconds, scrape down and repeat). Don’t over beat. I often just tip the wet mix into the bowl with the flour mix and combine by hand.

Spoon mix into a lined standard muffin tin and place in a preheated moderate oven for about 20 minutes or til golden and they spring back to a light touch.