Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for apple and cardamom buckwheat muffins | Food

A morning without breakfast just doesn’t sit right with me. Being able to take a little time to pause and prepare for the day over a bowl of porridge or scrambled eggs is one of life’s simple pleasures I don’t take for granted. For those mornings where time is a bit tight, muffins have been a welcome alternative. These are fragrant but not overly sweet, and wholesome enough to get your day off to a good start.

Apple and cardamom buckwheat muffins

The key to light muffins is not to overmix the batter – just a few quick folds to get everything combined.

Prep 20 min
Cook 20 min
Makes 6

2 eating apples, peeled and cored
130g buckwheat flour
75g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
1 egg
60g unsalted butter, melted
100ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp green cardamom pods, roughly crushed

To top
1 tbsp jumbo oats
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/gas 7 and line a six-hole muffin tray with paper liners. Alternatively, grease each cavity with butter and dust with a little flour.

Coarsely grate one of the apples and chop the other into 1cm cubes.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, whisk 0the egg, melted butter, milk, vanilla extract and cardamom, then stir in the grated apple. Pour the wet mixture into the dry, then fold gently but quickly until the batter is just combined (it’s fine if there are a few lumps).

Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin tray cups and top each one with cubes of apple, pushing them into the batter a little. Add a sprinkling of oats, pumpkin seeds and demerara sugar. Bake for eight minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180C (160C fan)/gas 4. Bake for a further eight to 10 minutes, until the muffins are well risen and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool completely before turning out and serving.