Blackberry, Apple & Speculaas Muffins

I came up with these muffins when I wanted to bake the family a healthy sweet treat. Hence I used wholemeal flour, unpeeled apples and blackberries to provide plenty of roughage as well as contributing to our 5-a-day! I also decided to use speculaas spice mix which is a fairly new kid on the block, hot on the heels of the popularity of Speculoos Spread, to provide a warm back note to the muffins. If you’ve ever eaten a Lotus biscuit then you will be familiar with the taste of speculaas spice mix which is a combination of cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, nutmeg, ground white pepper, coriander, aniseed (or fennel), mace and ground cardamom. There are many recipe variations to be found on the internet and you can also buy ready-made speculaas (or speculoos) spice mix if you don’t fancy preparing it yourself.

This year seems to have been a bumper year for blackberries and I don’t think I have ever foraged so many in such a short space of time, plus the season started a lot earlier than usual. With all this free fruit at our fingertips there really is not excuse not to make full use of it and get baking! I used Coxes apples in the recipe but if you can find a dessert apple tree to forage from that would be even better!

Blackberry, Apple and Speculaas Muffins are really easy to make and by using the blackberries straight from the freezer you will avoid them breaking up and staining the muffin mixture purple. I froze half my batch put them in my family’s packed lunches for a healthy treat. I do hope you will try these healthy and delicious muffins for yourself as they prove that food that is good for you needn’t be boring!

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Blackberry, Apple & Speculaas Muffins

A fabulous muffin made with foraged blackberries, apples and speculaas spice mix.

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 18

Author Camilla

Ingredients

• 100 g Plain wholemeal flour
• 200 g Plain white flour
• 4 tsp Baking powder
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Speculaas or speculoos spice mix
• 3 Coxes apples chopped, peel on (or dessert apples) about 350g
• 125 g Frozen blackberries
• 150 g Light brown Muscovado sugar
• 150 mls Light olive oil
• 2 Eggs lightly beaten
• 200 g Greek or Greek style yogurt

Instructions

• Pre-heat the oven to 180⁰C.
• Line 2 muffins trays with 18 muffin cases.
• Put the wholemeal flour in a bowl and sieve in the plain flour, baking powder, speculaas spice mix and salt, then mix well.
• In another bowl whisk together the egg, yogurt and oil.
• Mix the sugar, chopped apple and blackberries into the flour mixture and then mix in the oil mixture with a wooden spoon until just combined.
• Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases.
• Bake for 20 minutes until spring back to the touch or an inserted skewer comes out clean.
• Allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

For more Blackberry inspiration you might like my:

Blackberry Tofu Brulee
Blackberry & Raspberry Jam
Blackberry & Apple Jam
Blackberry & Apple Loaf

What’s your favourite way to use up foraged blackberries?

NB: This recipe was previously featured on Great British Chefs.