It’s that time of year when those glorious little elderberries are glistening like purple jewels from the elder tree. I love little more than free food, or the look on the face of a child who’s eating something delicious made by them with ingredients that they themselves harvested or foraged!
Some care must be taken when harvesting elderberries with kids, as the stem, leaves and uncooked berries are toxic. So be sure that only the berries are used for food, and that nothing enters little mouths until it’s been well and truly heat-blasted!
Don’t let that put you off, though: safe foraging is an important skill to teach our little ones, and experiencing baking with elderberries will be a memorable and tasty autumn moment for them. They’ll probably want to do it every year!
So, to make the Elderberry and Dark Chocolate Muffins you’ll need:
Ingredients
- 150g elderberries (removed from stalks and washed)
- 300g plain flour
- 200g ground almonds
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 250ml plant milk (almond / oat / soya)
- 200ml maple syrup
- 4 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 80g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
To make
- Preheat the oven to 180C fan (gas mark 4). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with muffin cases.
- Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda to a large mixing bowl and stir together until smooth.
- Add the plant milk, maple syrup, melted coconut oil and vanilla extract. Mix well until thick and smooth.
- Fold in the elderberries and dark chocolate.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin cases. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until golden (test by inserting a skewer or knife into the middle of a muffin – if it doesn’t come out clean, it needs another 5-10 minutes in the oven)
- Once cooked, remove the muffins from the oven and leave to cool completely.
- Enjoy as a snack or breakfast treat!