I seem to spend my life shouting “don’t eat that!” to various things the boys have “foraged”, so, when Robinsons asked if we wanted to go (fruit) picking and eat it – I knew I had the right kids for the job.
When the going gets tough during the summer months at home, the fights and yelling have reached fever pitch – my age-old advice is to “get them out”; but activities that keep all age groups in our clan happy, while not costing the earth are slim – so we head picking!
Fresh fruit aplenty, tractor rides, thousands of places to play ‘it’/hide-and-seek and no wi-fi, what’s not to love? Ok, maybe being force-fed unripened plums by a toddler (“mmmm, that’s yummy Casper, thank you!”) and internally crying at the biological stains when I see Hugo and Bruno pummel each other with the overripe raspberries (insider tip – don’t wear white!), but the fruit/fresh air induced smiles and laughter is the stuff that memories are made of.
We got to take our Robinsons trugg with us to carry our bounty and, drink Summer Fruit’s squash (which contains actual, real fruit in every drop) while picking our summer fruits – all that picking and playing ‘it’ is thirsty work. Casper loved the idea of turning his water pink himself, as the little bottles are small enough for him to squeeze “Go easy Cas, they’re only supposed to be 5 calories a glass!”
Admittedly, the Great British pastime of picking your body weight in summer fruits also means eating 50% of them before you make it back to the car and watching the other 50% go furry in fridge over the next few days, so Robinsons challenged us to put our harvest to good use in a sugar-free recipe to highlight that their fruit squashes are sugar-free. We chose to make Sugar Free Raspberry Muffins as a) I’m rubbish at baking and muffins aren’t quite an exact science as actual cake; b) the boys get bored easily, so the minimal stirring in/folding is perfect for tween boy’s attention spans and c) no one judges a muffin for breakfast!
Sugar Free Raspberry Muffin Recipe
Ingredients:
1¾ cups wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup melted coconut oil (or olive/vegetable oil)
½ cup maple syrup (or honey)
2 eggs at room temperature
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (any fat content will do, but the fuller the fat the creamier the muffins)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Zest of 1 medium lemon
1½ cups of lovingly picked raspberries (or any other summer fruit/berries)
12 cup muffin tin & muffin cases
- Preheat the oven 180 degrees & line your muffin tin with your muffin cases (we got ours from amazon!).
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients (the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt). Blend well with a whisk.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oil and maple syrup and beat together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well, then add the yogurt, vanilla and lemon zest. Mix well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a big spoon, just until combined (a few lumps are ok). Gently fold the raspberries into the batter. The mixture will be thick, but don’t worry.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups.
- Bake the muffins for 22 to 24 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
- Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool – Devour!
This post was sponsored by Robinsons, but as always all thoughts, opinions and comments are solely my own. Sugar Free Raspberry Muffin Recipe adapted from the very talented Cookie + Kate’s summer fruit muffin recipe.
