Guest blogger Aileen Cox Blundell shares her delicious, unique and nutritious recipes for Christmas for all the family. Aileen’s recipes are all perfect for baby-led feeding, which encourages children to eat by themselves.
One of the highlights of Christmas for my family (apart from the excitement of Santa Clause arriving, of course) is visiting relatives on Christmas day morning. Grandparents look after and spoil my children all year long and on Christmas morning, I love to repay the kindness, so I usually bring along something delicious for them. My kids then love the fun of watching Nana and Grandad open their presents.
This year I'm bringing Christmas muffins. They're a delicious and healthy treat, filled with Christmas goodness from cranberries and clementine zest and sweet smelling Christmas spices. They are sweetened with bananas and are small enough to satisfy a little tummy without spoiling that Christmas dinner you’ve worked so hard to create.
This recipe is not only simple to make, but it can be made weeks beforehand, stored in the freezer to pop out on Christmas Eve – ready to go on Christmas morning. They take less than 15 minutes to prepare and the recipe will make a batch of 48, so there’s enough for everyone to enjoy with lots left over in the freezer to last the entire holiday.
I hope you enjoy them as much as our family does!
Makes 48 Mini Muffins or 24 Regular Muffins
What goes in…
2 Cups self-raising flour
1 Cup milk
3 Fun-sized bananas
2 Eggs
1/4 Cup rapeseed oil
1/4 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon ground ginger
Zest of 2 clementines
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup cranberries chopped in quarters
How to make them…
1. Pre-heat oven to 200ºC.
2. Sieve flour into a bowl and leave aside.
3. Add milk and bananas to a blender and blend until completely smooth.
4. Pour the mixture into a separate bowl or jug and then whisk in the eggs, oil, spices, clementine zest and vanilla until combined then mix in the chopped up cranberries.
5. Make a well in the middle of the flour and slowly fold in the wet mixture. Don’t over mix as this is the secret to a perfectly fluffy muffin.
6. Spoon the mixture into a mini muffin tin filling about 3/4 the way up (they will rise).
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are a rich golden colour and a skewer comes out clean.
8. Cool before serving.
Aileen Cox Blundell is a mother of three who runs her own graphic and web design company, Sweet! Aileen’s passion for healthy, nutritious and sugar-free foods led her to begin creating her own recipes for her family. Aileen is also an advocate of baby-led feeding, which allows babies and young children to take control of their eating by encouraging them to self-regulate and be more experimental with different types of food. Find her gorgeous recipes at www.babyledfeeding.com and you can find her on Facebook and on Instagram or Twitter.
