Thu, May 24 2012
butternut squash muffins with a frosty top
Ingredients
• 400g butternut squash, skin on, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 350g light soft brown sugar
• 4 large free-range or organic eggs
sea salt
300g plain flour, unsifted
• 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
• a handful of walnuts
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 175ml extra virgin olive oil
for the frosted cream topping
• zest of 1 clementine
• zest of 1 lemon and juice of ½ a lemon
• 140ml soured cream
• 2 heaped tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
optional: lavender flowers or rose petals
• 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
Nutrition Information
Serving Size 1 muffins 89g
Recipe makes 12 muffins)
Calories 292
Calories from Fat 131 (45%)
Amount Per Serving %DV
Total Fat 14.7g 22%
Saturated Fat 1.3g 6%
Monounsaturated Fat 8.3g
Polyunsaturated Fat 4.2g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 18mg 6%
Sodium 273mg 11%
Potassium 94mg 2%
Total Carbohydrate 37.8g 12%
Dietary Fiber 1.4g 5%
Sugars 17.9g
Protein 3.4g 6%
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My kids love these squash muffins. They taste a bit like carrot cake, as the two
vegetables are very similar – I’ve simply swapped carrots for squash. Both of
them are wonderful carriers of flavours like cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. The
skin of a butternut squash goes deliciously chewy and soft when cooked, so
there’s no need to peel it off. Give these little cakes a go – they’re a perfect
naughty-but-nice treat. And a great way of getting your kids to eat
squash!
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line your muffin tins with
paper cases.
Whiz the squash in a food processor until finely chopped.
Add the sugar, and crack in the eggs. Add a pinch of salt, the flour, baking
powder, walnuts, cinnamon and olive oil and whiz together until well beaten. You
may need to pause the machine at some point to scrape the mix down the sides
with a rubber spatula. Try not to overdo it with the mixing – you want to just
combine everything and no more.
Fill the paper cases with the cake
mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Check to see whether
they are cooked properly by sticking a wooden skewer or a knife right into one
of the cakes – if it comes out clean, they’re done. If it’s a bit sticky, pop
them back into the oven for a little longer. Remove from the oven and leave the
cakes to cool on a wire rack.
As soon as the muffins are in the oven,
make your runny frosted topping. Place most of the clementine zest, all the
lemon zest and the lemon juice in a bowl. Add the soured cream, icing sugar and
vanilla seeds and mix well. Taste and have a think about it – adjust the amount
of lemon juice or icing sugar to balance the sweet and sour. Put into the fridge
until your cakes have cooled down, then spoon the topping on to the
cakes.
Serve on a lovely plate (or on a cake stand if you’re feeling
elegant, or on a rustic slab if you’re more of a hunter-gatherer type!), with
the rest of the clementine zest sprinkled over. For an interesting flavour and
look, a few dried lavender flowers or rose petals are fantastic.
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