The Orange Kitchen

Strawberry and Lemon Muffins.

I'm really into muffins right now. They're fun to bake, they're even more fun to eat and they're also really good (as in like, REALLY LEGIT, hit the spot kinda good) for a mid-morning pick me up!

The story of how these particular muffins came to be goes like this; I had some strawberries sitting in the fridge that needed to be used and I had the weird desire to make something with lemon zest in it. While I briefly entertained the idea of making a cake, I decided that I also wanted to make something I could keep in the freezer for a later day. Enter the muffin. Conveniently single serve sized, freezer friendly and open to endless flavour combinations! Then it occurred to me what a flipping fabulous flavour combination strawberries and lemon zest would make and voila - these muffins were birthed into the culinary world!

I often talk about the dilemma that eggless baking creates for vegans. In baked goods, eggs act as a binding agent, so you can't just take them out and expect things to work perfectly. The good news is that there are a myriad of options available for vegans to replace eggs in baking, the bad news is that they all kind of work a bit differently and you sort of have to pick the right one for whatever it is that you're baking. For these muffins I used a rather unconventional combination of two things to act as a binder - aquafaba and banana. Put together in a sentence like that makes things sound, quite frankly, a bit ew, but trust me, IT WORKS, and it works damn well! The aquafaba, which is the liquid part of canned beans/chickpeas (hear me out!!!), is literally undetectable taste wise and the banana is subtle, so it's truly the strawberries and the lemon zest that take centre stage here!

These muffins are perfect for a mid-morning snack (as tested by your's truly, xoxo) and would make the PERFECT addition to your next afternoon tea with friends (assuming that's a thing we still do/isn't just a grandma thing....). Put one in your lunchbox, eat one as a sneaky pre-breakfast snack - I can guarantee that whichever way you have these muffins, they'll be mighty tasty, super fluffy and basically the best thing ever. (Big call, but nonetheless v true). Happy days!!

Ingredients;

250gm strawberries, cut into quarters
2 tbsp strawberry jam
125gm vegan butter (I use Nuttelex)
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 tbsp aquafaba*
1 ripe banana
3 tbsp maple syrup
Rind from 1 lemon
2 cups self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup plant milk (I used soy)

1. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a muffin tray with patty pans (aesthetic suggestion - use pink ones! They work SO WELL with the strawberries and we all know that eating with your eyes is a thing okay!).
2. In a small saucepan over low-medium heat, combine the quartered strawberries and the strawberry jam. Stir continuously until the jam starts to become more liquid-like and the strawberries stew a little. This should take approx. 10 minutes. When the strawberries are cooked, remove from the heat and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the vegan butter, sugar, vanilla bean paste and aquafaba using an electric mixer until they're all creamed together and light and fluffy - you'll want to mix them for around 5 minutes to put enough air in the mix to make the aquafaba do it's thing properly (it's baking chemistry, just go with it!).
4. Add in the banana, maple syrup and lemon rind, mixing through well.
5. Add in the flour, baking powder and plant milk, manually folding them through the mix a little first and then mix through with the electric mixer until you have a thick and smooth mixture.
6. Take your lined muffin tray and scoop approx. 1 tbsp muffin mixture into the bottom of each patty pan. Then scoop in a spoonful of your stewed strawberry mixture, gently swirling the strawberries through a little. Add in another tbsp muffin mixture, then another spoonful strawberries on top, again swirling the strawberry mix through a little to create a kind of marbled effect. Repeat till you've used up all your mixture.
7. Place in the oven and bake for approx. 25 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are golden brown. They should be relatively firm to the touch and they'll smell ridiculously good!
8. Allow to cool slightly then serve. I think these are best served warm, so if not eating immediately, I suggest a quick zap in the microwave before eating, purely because warm muffin feels kinda like giving yourself a giant hug, culinary style, and that's really underrated if you ask me!


*aquafaba is the liquid from a can of beans/chickpeas - I know that sounds kinda whacky but trust me, it's a vegan baker's secret ingredient!!!