Cherry almond muffins

It’s a bit cheeky calling these cherry almond muffins, since they contain neither cherries nor almonds.

This is yet another variation on my vegan bran muffin recipe. Like the apricot muffins, I used oat bran instead of wheat bran.

For the cherry taste without the cherries, I used cherry-flavoured dried cranberries (Craisins), which were in the stash of vegan goodies I brought back with me from Canada. These little morsels are bursting with awesome cherry flavour. I SO wish they were available here, but noooo, we can only get ordinary dried cranberries here. I actually ended up using only half cherry-flavoured cranberries, and half ordinary dried cranberries, to stretch the supply.

I also added some almond extract to the batter, since cherry and almond flavours mingle so well together. I thought of adding a few sliced almonds on top of the muffins, but all I had were whole almonds, and I didn’t really want to try and slice them myself. But I bet they’d be a nice addition.

Last week, I bought some organic golden syrup at a health shop in Salisbury, so I used this as a sweetener. Agave syrup or maple syrup could be used instead.

1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F). Grease a muffin tin, or use muffin liners.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add water to the powdered egg replacer according to the package directions for the equivalent of two eggs. Whisk mixture together until foamy. Then whisk in soya milk, oil, golden syrup, sugar and almond extract until well blended.

3. Stir in bran and let stand for 5 minutes.

4. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add to the liquid mixture, and fold gently until just combined. Fold in cherries or cranberries.

5. Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin tin, filling just to the top.

6. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, rotating tin halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.