Belinda Jeffery

These are such quick and easy muffins to whip up and lovely for a weekend breakfast or brunch. You may notice that there’s not much sugar in the recipe – this is because most granola is coated with honey or maple syrup already so the muffins don’t need much more sweetening. I’ve also made them with gluten-free toasted muesli and spelt flour and they were terrific.

Makes 12 medium-size muffins

Preheat your oven to 200C (180C FF). Butter a 12-hole muffin tin and set it aside (or line the muffin holes with paper liners.).

Put the granola, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Whiz them together for about 20 seconds to break up the granola, then tip the mixture into a bowl and stir in the raisins or sultanas.

Now put the eggs, brown sugar, oil, buttermilk (or milk kefir), and vanilla extract into the processor and whiz them for 15 seconds so they’re thoroughly mixed. Make a well in the middle of the granola mixture and pour in the egg mixture. Stir them quickly and briefly together until they’re just combined. Don’t worry if there are still a few speckles of flour in the batter; it’s better that it’s slightly under-mixed than over-mixed, which tends to make the muffins tough. The batter will also seem quite wet but that’s fine too. Leave it sit for 1 minute and it will thicken up as the granola absorbs some of the moisture.

Divide the batter evenly between the muffin holes. I find it easiest to use a spring-loaded ice cream scoop for this. Sprinkle the tops with coconut, pepitas, sunflower seeds, nuts, or a mixture of these.

Bake the muffins for 18 – 20 minutes, or until they’re golden and spring back when lightly pressed in the middle. Cool the muffins in the tin on a wire rack for 1 minute or so, then loosen around the edges if they need it, and turn them out onto the rack. Serve them warm or room temperature with butter, fresh ricotta or cottage cheese.

They freeze well in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.