These Summer holidays just gone, I was determined that I wasn’t going to spend,

a: oodles of money on eating out, and

b: spend my whole time in the cabin preparing food.

So, in the days before we bundled up our car full of all the ‘necessities’ of a quick beach trip (I have issues with packing – ALWAYS take far too much, even when I think I’m being frugal!), I spent some time pre-baking and chopping and doing some general meal prep so I could actually enjoy our break.

Muffins are a great food to take away as you can freeze some, and then keep the rest fresh for a quick breakfast on the go, or a nice dense morning tea to tide you over until lunch.

As with all gluten free muffins, these are best eaten fresh, but will ‘bounce back’ to the just baked texture with a quick heat through in the oven or microwave.

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour (gluten free)

1/2 cup coconut sugar

3 teaspoons of baking powder (gluten free)

Pinch salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup coconut yoghurt

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup honey

1 egg (or to make egg free, replace with a chia egg or 1 mashed banana)

1 tsp vanilla powder (or extract)

2 fresh pears – peeled and diced.

Method:

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, vanilla powder)

Combine all wet ingredients in a second bowl (yoghurt, oil, honey, egg and if using, vanilla extract)

Gently fold wet into dry and stir only enough to ‘wet’ all the dry ingredients.

Fold through pears.

Scoop into 12 lined muffin holes, sprinkle with some extra coconut sugar and cinnamon and bake at 180 degrees for about 20-30 minutes.

Cool.

Best served warm.

*this is a dense muffin, not a light, fluffy variety.

Store in an air tight container in the fridge and warm slightly before serving.