Crunchy Ginger Millet Muffins

By Jeannette Ordas of Everybody likes Sandwiches

Lately, I've been craving muffins. The mornings have been dark and dreary so I suppose baking something sweet smelling first thing after you wake up is the perfect pick-me-up. A muffin and a cup of coffee to start the day? Sign me up!

These muffins are ripe with a heavy one-two punch of ginger – ground ginger plus candied ginger make this a very gingerlicious breakfast. But what makes these muffins truly unusual is the millet. See those round little balls? That's the millet and it makes for an interesting texture. Lightly toasted and super crunchy, these are probably what your cranky uncle would call "hippy food". Millet is a component in birdseed after all, but it's versatile and I love to have it on hand.

And yes, these are healthy. Pretty low in fat too since the banana helps to replace a lot of oil. They are packed with whole grains from the oats and millet, so I guess this could classify as hippy food and I'm okay with that. Crunch on that, cranky-pants.


Crunchy Ginger Millet Muffins
(adapted from Kitchen Operas)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
3/4 cup uncooked millet, lightly toasted*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/3 cup agave syrup
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon roasted walnut oil (but any oil or melted butter will do)
1 ripe banana mashed
1/3 cup candied ginger, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease muffin tins with oil or butter.

In one bowl, whisk together the flour through to the spices. In another large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients - the agave to the banana. Pour the dry into the wet and stir until just combined. Mix in the candied ginger until well distributed in the batter. Spoon batter 3/4's full into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 15 large muffins.

* toast millet on a cookie sheet in the oven for 10 minutes until golden - make sure to give it a shake every 3 minutes for even baking.

Jan Halvarson

10 comments:

wideeyedtree said...

These look delicious!

Jen said...

They do look delicious. Wonder whether I can get the little ones to eat these, have so much trouble getting breakfast into them. These might be the answer.
Jen & Row
www.shimi.com.au

Unknown said...

Yum! Would go great with my coffee about now!

Jen said...

Hey yeah these look great! I've been wanting to try millet, I think these might be what gets me to do it.
Thanks!

Bijoux said...

Funny post! When I first mentioned to my parents that I cook and eat millet, their response was: Wha? They give that to canaries to make then sing! Haha! Well sing I will then :) These ginger muffins sound fantastic and are perfect for my hippie health conscious husband too!

Pinecone Camp said...

Jeanette, I could use some healthy muffins. do you have any left? I'm making these this weekend - they sound perfectly delicious.

Marisa said...

I love millet muffins. There's a bakery here in Philly that makes them (and I have their recipe) and they are so good. I may have to try to add a bit of ginger to the next batch I make.

Anonymous said...

YUM! Glad you like them!!! :D

Lili said...

These muffins are truly amazing ! I made them for desert tonight and oh boy are they good. They taste so good that you would think they were bad for you.
I used soy milk instead cos we were out of cows milk and they worked fine plus i used flaxseed oil instead...
:D

martha said...

I clicked on this thinking "I wish I could still eat muffins..."

And I can eat these ones!!!
Thanks for making them without refined sugar! I'll try them out for sure.
p.s. Rebar has a fabulous recipe for pumpkin millet muffins in their cookbook.