Apple oat muffins with chai icing

 

I am not the best at picking breakfast. It’s for sure my favourite part of the day, but sometimes I  wake up craving for something sweet and unhealthy to have with my coffee like…chocolate cake.

In fact when I was a kid, while everyone was having cake for dessert, I used to save a slice in the fridge just so that I could have it for breakfast the next morning. Many people frown upon this practice, so as an adult I kinda made a connection that bran cereal or poached eggs for breakfast show a certain level of maturity.

So here’s my compromise: a small muffin, naturally sweetened with bananas, apples and oats with a healthy (ahem) dollop of sugar and chai on top because…well mornings are tough and you should have something to look forward to on a Monday morning.

So when you can spare an hour, whip up this recipe and keep it in an air tight container and it will last you for at least half of your week.

Apple oat muffins with chai icing (yields 10 small muffins)

100g oats

100g plain flour

2 eggs

90g softened butter

80g golden caster sugar

1 banana, mashed

1 apple, cored, peeled and chopped into small cubes

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate

50g of dried fruits (I used a mixture of cranberries and sultanas)

for the icing:

1 cup of icing sugar

30ml of strong chai tea

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line muffin tins with paper or silicone cases

2. Using an electric whisk mix the sugar and butter until the mixture becomes pale in colour. Add the egg, vanilla extract and mashed banana, continue mixing with every addition

3. In a separate bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate together. Add the oats then fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Once well combined mix in chopped apple and dried fruit

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins start turning golden brown on top. Test with a skewer to check it does not come out wet. Let it cool for at least an hour on a cookie rack

5. Meanwhile mix all the ingredients for the topping together with a whisk until you achieve a homogeneous mixture with no lumps

6. Once cool dip the top of the muffins on the icing mixture. If you with for the icing to be denser just add more icing to the mixture, one teaspoon at a time.