I know what you’re thinking, “This sounds delightful!”
If you’re a juicer (verb, not noun) then no doubt you’re producing lots of pulp that is either going in the bin or, hopefully, into the compost heap to provide your garden with lovely rich compost. Whilst the process of extracting the juice has removed the vast majority of the nutrients from your fruit and veg, there is still some in there, and let’s not forget about the flavours and insoluble fibre too.
Now, instead of throwing all the pulp into the compost you can use it in a number of other ways; use it as a thickener in soups, make a veggie broth, add it to boiling water to make “fruit tea”. Have a search on-line and you’ll find loads of ideas, but for this recipe we’ll add it into some muffins. So there you have it – compost muffins.
Enjoy!
Compost Muffin Recipe
Ingredients:
Sponge
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 300g spelt flour (approx 2 cups)
- 250ml/1 cup milk
Starter replenishment
- 75g spelt flour
- water
Batter
- The sponge as prepared
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sea salt
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (or melted butter)
- 1/2 cup fruit/veg pulp from your juicer
Method:
- Mix the ingredients for the sponge in a large bowl. Cover the bowl and leave for overnight. By morning the sponge should be clearly fermenting (thick, sticky and bubbly).
- Don’t forget to replenish the starter with the flour and sufficient water to maintain the batter-like consistency, otherwise you’ll soon run out.
- In the morning, or once the sponge is well fermented, mix in the honey, salt, butter, eggs and fruit pulp.
- Split the mixture between 12-16 muffin cases in muffin trays.
- Allow the tray of muffins to prove until they are 2-3 times their original size.
- Bake at 180C for about 15 mins, until a skewer comes out clean.
- Allow to cool before serving.
For the muffins in the photo above I used apple and ginger pulp but you can use your creativity; experiment with all sorts of combinations.
It seemed appropriate to sprinkle some cinnamon and walnut pieces on top of mine before baking. Then, for an extra treat, top it off with a dollop of crème fraiche and honey – mix them in a 3:1 ratio (3 tablespoons crème fraiche to 1 tablespoon honey) although if you like it a little sweeter then add a dash more honey.
Notes:
How much pulp? – Depending on how dry the pulp from your juicer is, you may want to vary the amount of pulp that you use. The dryer the pulp the more you’ll want to use.
Oven temperatures – All ovens are slightly different so you may need to adjust for your particular model. I’m using an electric fan oven, you may need to bake for longer and/or at a higher temperature.
