Tag: Prunes

Prune, walnut and pecan Muffins

Oh the misaligned prune!  I had a bag of prunes waiting to be used up, there were given to me by my mum who had announced that they were revolting and can I please take them away.  I’ve tried a few prune recipes in the past and used them in porridge a few years ago, which was a surprise success.

For these muffins I went for the ‘hidden’ prune option and blitzed them into the milk – it meant I could use up a lot of them at once!  The nuts then add the texture and the milk the slight prune taste – and of course all the added benefits of prunes…

These aren’t very sweet, so they taste good cut in half with some spread and jam, or with some fruit and yoghurt and a splash of maple or date syrup.  They freeze well too.

Prune, walnut and pecan muffins

  • 100g spelt flour (or wholemeal)
  • 180g plain flour
  • 100g castor sugar
  • pinch salt
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 100g pitted prunes
  • 250ml milk of choice (I used soya, but nut milks work well too)
  • 100ml rapeseed oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 50g walnuts (crushed into chunky pieces)
  • 50g Pecan nuts (crushed into chunky pieces)

Method

  • Mix the flours, sugar, salt and baking powder together.  Mix in the nuts.
  • Blend the prunes with the milk.  Then add the vanilla and oil and mix together.  Add this to the dry mixture and mix quickly.
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes.  200c/400f/Gas 6.
  • Makes 9 -10 large muffins

prune and nut muffins 2

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Sticky Prune Bites

I found a tin of prunes in the back of the cupboard that were almost out of date, I have no idea why I bought them, but I hate wasting things so spent a large part of this morning trying to figure out what to do with them.  I tried making some granola but instead my ‘granola’ came out quite sticky and actually rather lovely, keeping the moistness of the prunes.

The result of my experiment are some rather lovely moist snacky bites – definitely somewhere between chunky granola and sticky flapjacks. Delicious on their own with a cup of coffee. It’s a good way to incorporate some prunes into your diet – I’ve never been a big fan, but keeping the moisture and adding some lovely zesty oats works for me.

Sticky Prune Bites

Makes enough bites for around 3 snacky breakfasts – if you can resist the urge to snack on them during the rest of the day.

Sticky prune bites

  • 100g oats
  • 1 tin of pitted prunes in juice (290g)
  • 50g whole almonds
  • Juice and Zest of one orange
  • 1 tablespoon of honey
  • 2 tablespoons of the prune juice
  • 1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Drain the prunes – and keep the juice. Put the oats in a bowl and chop in the prunes – I used scissors to chop them into chunks. Add the almonds and orange zest and mix well to ensure all the prune chunks are well covered in oats.

Mix the honey, orange juice, prune juice and sugar together in a small pan and heat gently for a couple of minutes until the honey and sugar is dissolved.  Let it cool for a couple of minutes and then add to the oat mix.  Mix it well – it will be wet and sticky.

Rub some butter on the bottom of a baking sheet to stop it sticking and then spread the oat mixture over the sheet.

Put it in the oven (200c/400f/Gas 6) – for 5 minutes.  Take it out and give it a shake and another mix up to break it up into pieces. It will still be quite sticky.

Cook for a further 5 minutes.  Take it out, shake it up again and leave to cool.

The final mix is still quite sticky but really lovely and moist and easily breaks into bite sized bits with lovely chunks of prune.

Store in an airtight jar in the fridge