Fig, Orange and Banana Muffin

This recipe is from Belinda Jeffery’s Mix and Bake, yes, again. I only own two cookbooks so far, and this one is proving so great, so why not try every recipe from it. This recipe is actually suppose to be date, orange and banana muffin. Upon spying some dates left in the pantry the previous day, I decided to make these. Only when I started to make them did I find that all the dates were eaten in the space of a day, despite being in the pantry for a good 3 months untouched. Necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to use the dried figs in the pantry instead.

The figs worked ok in the recipe but not fantastic. The flavours of the fig was too subtle and the nutmeg really dominated in this muffin. The dates would have been much stronger in flavour and also provided more sweetness to the muffin. I also found the texture of this muffin a little dry. Again, I think the dates would have made it more gooey and better.

Belinda uses a food processor to make this cake, but I don’t have a powerful food processor, so did everything with an electric hand whisk and it worked just fine. I did whiz the orange in my small blender.



Fig, Orange and Banana Muffin

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
½ cup stone-ground wholemeal plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup figs, chopped
1 medium sized navel orange
2 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup light olive oil
2 medium sized bananas, giving ½ cup mashed
½ cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
1) Preheat oven to 200C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper muffin cups.
2) Put both the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and nutmeg into a food processor and whiz them together for 15 seconds. Tip the mixture into a bowl.
3) Wash and dry the orange and chop into small chunks. Put chunks into food processor and whiz for 1 minute until a rough puree is formed.
4) Add eggs, brown sugar, oil, mashed bananas, orange juice and vanilla extract to the orange puree and whiz until mixture is fairly smooth.
5) Put the orange mixture into the dry ingredients and quickly stir them together until just combined. The batter will be quite sloppy so leave for 1 minute to thicken before spooning into muffin cups.
6) Bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted wooden skewer comes out clean.