Vanilla strawberry sugar and goat yogurt muffins

This, once again, is a recipe that happened by accident. I have an organic produce shop close to my house that I visit way too often. Sometimes, when I go there, they give me yogurt with due date that is exactly that day so that I can use them for testing. And I do. One day, I got some amazing Bergerie organic goat milk vanilla yogurt (our family's favorite along with sheep’s milk yogurt). I opened my cupboard, where I had a selection of beautiful Vanilla Sky sugars (sugar + freeze-dried berries) and took the strawberry. Since I had no eggs, I went for bananas instead.

I know how to mix and match muffins; it has been my passion for a long time. But every time I make something new, especially without eggs, I tend to lurk just around the corner, watching the oven and muffins in it, as they would not rise if they could see me doing that. After 25 minutes of anticipation, a skewer inserted just about in the middle was clean and the muffins were ready. Beautifully risen and looking good. But still, I had to wait for 20 minutes to get them out. Not a minute earlier, as the last time I did that, I ended up with 12 half muffins. Anyway, here they are – very, very good. Egg and cow milk free.

Ingredients

145 g peeled, very ripe organic banana
130 g strawberry sugar*
120 ml grape seed oil
230 g goat milk vanilla yogurt
1/3 – 1/2 vanilla pod seeds**
50 g semolina
130 g wheat flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda
pinch of sea salt
30 g dried coconut slices
some sugar to sprinkle on top

Prepare

Heat oven to 200° and butter a silicone 6-muffin pan. Or you can use a regular 12-muffin pan. Butter or line the pans with paper muffin forms.

Place the banana in a blender and blend until smooth and silky. Pour into a bowl, add yogurt, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Mix with a hand whisk.

In another bowl, mix together the semolina, flour, soda, baking powder and salt. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon or fork until lump-free.

Place equal amounts in the pan and sprinkle coconut flakes and sugar on top. Bake large ones for 20-25 minutes, regular for 18 – 20 minutes or until a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully lift onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Serve warm, but they also taste amazing cool and on the next day.

* I use a brand you can get in Latvia. It is golden sugar mixed with freeze-dried and blended strawberries. You can use 90% sugar and 10% strawberries (blended).

** depends on how much vanilla you want. I like to use 1/2.

Recipe and pictures: Signe Meirane
Camera: Sony Alpha 7s