The enticing aroma of fresh muffins is hard to resist. And they’re so worth the minimal effort to prepare - even in the busy, messy lead up to Christmas. Great to feed kids for school or holiday snacks and in the unlikely event you have any left overs, they can be frozen. Remember fold the mixture to avoid over stirring the batter. The mixture should be lumpy and coarse looking - over mixing will result in tough muffins. 

Makes 12.

1 ½ cups (375g) Greek natural yoghurt (full-fat)

200g (1 ½ cups) Tuerong Farm spelt flour (see note*)

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

100g ground almonds

2/3 cup (170g) caster sugar, plus 1 tablespoon extra

2 Yokey Dokey XL eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

60g unsalted butter, melted

250g strawberries, hulled and cut into quarters

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a twelve 1/2 cup (125ml) muffin pan with paper cups.

Reserve ¼ cup of the yoghurt. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in the almond meal and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla, melted butter and remaining yoghurt to combine well. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients then pour in the wet ingredients. Fold gently with a spatula until just combined. The batter should still be lumpy. Add three-quarters of the strawberries and fold until just incorporated.

Spoon the batter into prepared paper cups. Top each muffin with a little of the reserved yoghurt and remaining strawberries. Sprinkle the extra sugar over the strawberry pieces. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Cool slightly. Remove muffins from tin and cool on a wire rack.

*Spelt flour can be substituted with plain flour. You can use any flour from the Tuerong Farm range

Recipe by © Fiona Hammond, Dec 2023