St. Lucia muffins
As promised, here’s the recipe for the delicious tropical muffins I made for my anniversary weekend celebration. These muffins started out simply: with the idea of melding some tropical fruit into a simple and healthy muffin base. But then my ambition got the best of me. St. Lucia is famous for its bananas and coconut, but it’s also famous for its rum! We still have plenty of it from our wedding trip to the island in 2007, and I decided it was the perfect way to spice up these otherwise healthy breakfast treats. It was a celebration, so why not?
These muffins also happen to fit nicely into the guidelines for the first SOS Kitchen Challenge of 2011, which highlights coconut oil. I have to admit, I never used to be a fan of coconut, but ever since I started experimenting with raw desserts (in which coconut oil is a staple) the taste is really growing on me. The nutritional benefits are also a bonus! This particular recipe provides a triple bang—coconut oil, coconut nectar and coconut milk—and the addition of banana helps to mellow out the flavour and also provides moisture. Combine these tropical fruits with the subtle addition of Caribbean rum and one bite of these muffins will surely take you to a faraway paradise with clear blue water and endless sunshine. The rum is entirely optional, of course. If you prefer to go with a virgin muffin, just substitute an additional 2 tablespoons of coconut milk for the alcohol. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 2 cups spelt flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 banana, mashed
- 1/2 cup coconut nectar or agave nectar
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 cup light coconut milk
- 2 tbsp dark rum
- 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, lightly toasted
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the spelt flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine the banana, coconut nectar, coconut oil, coconut milk and rum.
- Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir just to combine. Fold in the coconut flakes. Spoon the mixture into a muffin pan lined with muffin cups and garnish with more coconut, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Store muffins in an air-tight container at room temperature.
These look really amazing! The flavour combination sounds awesome.
Happy anniversary! These muffins sound divine.
These sound SO good! Thanks for sharing
Sounds like a great recipe–I used to feel the same way about coconut, but also have grown to love it now that I use it so often! Thanks so much for submitting this to the SOS Challenge this month.
What a sweet little recipe! I love the significance of it too. Looks fantastic. Thanks for your entry to the SOS Kitchen CHallenge, Ricki and I co-host the challenge each month and it is great to see your entry.
They look divine, definitely would like to try them and perhaps a stupid question but what is spelt flour and is the coconut and agrave nectr easy to find in all countries – i have never heard of it before.
Thanks
Hi Sam! Spelt flour is a wheat-free, whole-grain flour and should be widely available. If you can’t find it, you can substitute whole wheat flour. Agave nectar should be fairly easy to find as well (check your local health food store), but if not, you can try using honey instead if you are not vegan. Coconut nectar will be harder to find than agave. Hope that helps!