First of all, if you are here only for the muffins, feel free to skip all the text and go straight down to the recipe and if you follow my blog also for my little stories and experiences than stay and read what’s been going on in my life lately…
This May is definitely not what I thought it would be! I thought I will focus on my work and in free time travel around this beautiful country with my husband and discover lovely little villages and cute little towns just like we did last year. We couldn’t believe how beautiful Switzerland is in Spring when the nature is waking up after a long winter sleep and the smell of blooming flowers and fresh grass fills the air and there is a beautiful melody of bells spreading through the air in the countryside where cows, goats and sheep all wear these cute bells around their necks while enjoying the warmth of the sun and eating their grass… We would discover a new village or an area almost every weekend and we learnt to appreciate those peaceful moments and all that beauty, specially because we normally spend very little time together due to his work. You can see here scenes from some of those little trips that we love so much.
You may wonder why am I being nostalgic and writing all this. Well, because very very soon we will have to leave this beautiful country we called home for the last year and our hearts are heavy… I wrote already about this expat / nomadic lifestyle we have and how it brings so much beauty and excitement to our lives but also so much of difficult and sad and challenging. Now is one of those moments as we didn’t expect to be leaving so soon and we fell in love with Switzerland, its mountains, lakes, perfect little villages, cheese, happy people and animals, we loved how everything is clean, organized, safe and how the rules are there to be respected and not broken and how people could live a dignified and financially secured life no matter what job they had… The last time I felt this way was just a year and half ago when we had to leave Turkey and now it’s happening again much sooner than I thought. This is basically our 3rd move and 4th country in a bit over 2 years and well, that’s kind of too much even for us!
I don’t want to sound too depressing, it’s just that I share a bit of myself here on the blog and sometimes lives of some food & lifestyle bloggers seem so perfect with the perfectly styled breakfasts, perfect fresh berries in baskets, pretty little pink and white flowers and peaceful moments in morning light but in reality life can be just the opposite sometimes and we all have challenges to deal with. So why not share a bit of those too… I still haven’t mention where are we going, well it’s kind of complicated but for a while we will be in Zagreb, Croatia so that makes all this a little bit easier as I will be, even if temporary, in my home country and in the city where I actually lived as a student some 15 years ago (15, what!!!?). Zagreb is a beautiful city and it has a special place in my heart, so many good memories from those times and it will be really interesting seeing how much has changed since and to see old friends (obviously not old as old in age but old as… ah you know what I mean!) and to be close to my family. So there are positives but it’s still difficult… Anyway, enough with all that as I really should be packing and organizing for the move and not writing novels here! 😀 Let’s have a muffin or two and stay focused on the positive, agree?
These muffins are delicious, soft, moist from banana and coconut oil, nutty from hazelnuts and fresh from blueberries. They are full of good healthy ingredients and perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack. If you like sweeter muffins, feel free to add a bit more of maple syrup than in the recipe.
Oh and if you want to see a bit more about my move and this new life adventure, follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (username:travellingoven).
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup spelt flour (or flour of your choice)
- ½ cup ground hazelnuts
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- ½ - ¾ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
- Note: 1 cup = 250 ml
- Important: If using fresh blueberries, you can mix them with the batter and it won't change the color but if you are using frozen blueberries and stir them into the batter, the batter will turn a grayish green color that doesn't look that appetizing so rather do what I did and follow the instructions in the recipe.
- If you are making 12 muffins, just double up the quantities.
- Preheat oven to 175 C / 350 F. Prepare a 6 cups muffin pan and line it with paper cups.
- Mash banana with a fork. In a large mixing bowl combine mashed banana with egg, coconut oil, maple syrup ad vanilla. Whisk until it's well combined.
- Add flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt and whisk all to combine.
- If using fresh blueberries, gently stir them into the batter and fill the muffin cups ¾ full.
- If using frozen blueberries, don't stir them into batter as the batter with turn grayish green color but rather put a bit of batter, than a bit of blueberries on top and than some more batter on top of blueberries in each muffin cup. This way the brownies will keep their nice golden brown color.
- Bake for 25-27 min or until the tester comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown.
- Leave them to cool at least 10 min before transferring to cooling rack too cool completely.
- Store in airtight container or covered with foil and they will keep soft and fresh for 3 days.
- Enjoy!
these look and sound SO delicious!! and gorgeous photos <3
Thank you so much ladies, I’m so happy you like them! <3