Fruit Cake Mini Muffins

Pulsin

These mini muffins are a great alternative to dense sugary fruit cake. Sugar-free but still packed with plenty of flavour.

SO MAN
www.sobody.co.uk

Hello! I am So from SOBODYUK. I am a gym bunny, healthy food blogger & a geeky scientist! These days my lab is the kitchen! I love creating delicious, healthy, wholefood, clean-eating, nutrition-dense recipes to maximise performance & health. My recipes include paleo, low carb, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free.

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Ingredients

1/2 cup pitted dates
1/4 cup pitted prunes
1/8 cup raisins/sultanas/currants
1/2 cup of orange juice (alternatively substitute for strong black tea to make tea bread)
1/2 cup of applesauce
1/4 cup dried apricots
2 chia eggs*
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup wholemeal self-raising flour (gluten-free if required) (If adding protein powder, reduce the flour by 2 tbsp and add for 2 tbsp protein powder instead.)
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 tsp salt
Finely grated zest from 1 orange
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
A handful of flaked almonds (to decorate)

These mini muffins are a great alternative to dense sugary fruit cake. Sugar-free but still packed with plenty of flavour.

SO MAN
www.sobody.co.uk

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F, 180C. Lightly grease 2 mini-muffin trays with melted coconut oil or spray coconut oil.
Cut the dates, prunes and dried apricots into small chunks. Finely grate an orange for its rind. Place all these ingredients and the raisins/sultanas/currants in a saucepan along with the orange juice and water, and boil for 5 mins.
Add sugar-free apple sauce and a tablespoon of melted coconut oil and mix together. The fruit will turn into a mushy-like paste. Set aside to cool.
Mix together chia eggs*, vanilla extract, chia seeds and walnuts. Add to the dried fruit paste.
In a separate bowl, sift the wholemeal flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon, if using. Then add this to the fruit mixture along with ground flaxseed to the fruity paste. Mix thoroughly.
Divide the mixture equally into the muffin tin. Decorate with a few flaked almonds on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Turn cake onto a wire rack to cool. Put the kettle on and enjoy!

*Chia seed gel. To replace 1 egg, simply grind 1 tbsp chia seeds in a coffee grinder and mix with 1/4 cup of water. Allow to soak for 10-15 mins until a gel forms and use this instead of an egg. Milled chia seeds are a convenient alternative. By using chia seed gel and gluten free-flour, these muffins are suitable for coeliacs.