These vegan muffins have a natural, oatmeal muffin base with a gentle hit of chai flavour and a delicious, slightly sweet and pleasantly textural punch from Natural Delights Medjool Dates. Make them a part of your Christmas breakfast menu this year and you won't regret it!
*This post is sponsored by Natural Delights. All opinions are authentic and my own. Thank you for supporting the awesome companies that partner with Woman in Real Life.*
To make these muffins for your festive Christmas breakfast, you'll need to steep a chai loose leaf tea blend (or tea bag) in a cup of warm non dairy milk, such as soy or almond beverage. This will give the muffins a nice hint of spicy chai flavour. You can use plain non dairy milk if you want to skip the chai. You could also add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and any other spices you like to the muffins (nutmeg? ginger?) if you don't have a chai blend handy.
For these vegan Christmas breakfast muffins, you'll need to whip together a healthy, handy flax "egg." All you have to do is mix a tablespoon of ground flax with three tablespoons of water and allow the mixture to thicken for five minutes or so. You could also use a commercial egg replacer. I keep ground flax in my freezer at all times - the freezer keeps it fresh for longer and you can make a flax egg easily whenever it's needed.
The remaining ingredients for the oatmeal muffin base are basic baking essentials you most likely already have - vegan margarine, sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, old-fashioned oatmeal and salt. The vegan margarine gives these muffins a nice "buttery" flavour. I like to sprinkle some extra oatmeal on top before baking - it gives a nice little crunch that contrasts with the tender baked muffins.
The key ingredient in these muffins is Medjools. Natural Delights Medjool Dates are a fresh fruit (not a dried product like some other dates), so they are soft and caramel-like with a fresh, delicious taste. Once baked, the Medjools lend moist, sweet pockets of flavour goodness to each bite of these Christmas breakfast muffins. Be sure to remove the pits, and then slice the Medjools into about four to six pieces each before adding to your vegan muffin mix.
This recipe makes 12 muffins, but if you fill the muffin cups a little bit more to get taller muffins, you might get around nine muffins. I made these Christmas Breakfast Oatmeal Chai Medjool Date muffins on the smaller side, because you'll probably have a selection of items for your Christmas breakfast, so you won't want to fill up on one item.
Benefits of Medjool Dates
- Natural Delights Medjool Dates are very high in antioxidants and fibre.
- They have 50 percent more potassium than bananas by weight.
- Medjools are naturally sweet and contain no sulphites and preservatives.
- Medjools are versatile for baking as well as healthy, post-holiday smoothies and snacks.
- They can be found year-round in the produce section of your grocery store.
- Natural Delights has introduced new green plastic packaging made from 100 percent post-
consumer recycled materials. - This is a fresh, not dried, fruit, so Medjools are tender and delicious.
- While not all product is labelled organic, Natural Delights farmers all follow organic practices.
Natural Delights Medjool Dates are grown in the Bard Valley, which straddles California and Arizona. Visit Natural Delights online for more information and recipes.
Questions for you
What do you typically make for Christmas breakfast? Do you include muffins in your Christmas breakfast ideas? What other recipes do you like to make with Medjool Dates?
Oatmeal Chai Medjool Date Muffins (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 cup non dairy milk, such as soy or almond
1 teaspoon chai tea herbal blend (or chai tea bag)
½ cup vegan margarine
½ cup sugar
1 flax “egg” (mix 1 tablespoon flax and 3 tablespoons water in a small bowl; allow to gel for at least 5 minutes)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup chopped, pitted Natural Delights Medjool Dates
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Grease a muffin tray or line with silicone or paper muffin cups.
In a small pot, heat non-dairy milk gently until warm but not boiling. Remove from heat and pour into a cup. Add chai tea blend to a tea strainer and put in cup (or add tea bag). Steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the tea strainer or bag and allow milk to cool.
With a handheld mixer, in a large bowl, cream vegan margarine. Add sugar and flax egg and beat briefly until creamy. Stir in the milk blend. (Don’t worry if the mixture is lumpy.)
In another large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry mixture to wet and stir. Stir in oats and dates.
Fill muffin tray evenly with batter.
Bake muffins for 15 to 20 minutes until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
These sound yummy. I eat a lot of dates around here, so good!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I agree - so delicious and sweet, yet healthy! :)
DeleteThat is really nice to hear. thank you for the update and good luck. flossmore Realtors
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