Butternut squash muffins

Jamie Oliver Butternut squash muffins with a frosty top recipe

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Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver

Date Published:
22/10/2007

Jamie:

"My kids love these squash muffins. They taste a bit like carrot cake, as the two vegetables are very similar - I've simply swapped carrots for squash. Both of them are wonderful carriers of flavours like cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. The skin of a butternut squash goes deliciously chewy and soft when cooked, so there's no need to peel it off. Give these little cakes a go - they're a perfect naughty-but-nice treat. And a great way of getting your kids to eat squash!"

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Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the muffins

  • 400g butternut squash, skin on, deseeded and roughly chopped
  • 350g light soft brown sugar
  • 4 large free-range or organic eggs
  • Sea salt
  • 300g plain flour, unsifted
  • 2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder
  • A handful of walnuts
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 175ml of extra virgin olive oil

For the frosted cream topping

  • Zest of 1 clementine
  • Zest of 1 lemon and juice of ½ a lemon
  • 140ml of soured cream
  • 2 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
  • Optional: lavender flowers or rose petals

Method: How to make butternut squash muffins with a frosty top

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line your muffin tins with paper cases.

2. Whiz the squash in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the sugar, and crack in the eggs. Add a pinch of salt, the flour, baking powder, walnuts, cinnamon and olive oil and whiz together until well beaten. You may need to pause the machine at some point to scrape the mix down the sides with a rubber spatula. Try not to overdo it with the mixing - you want to just combine everything and no more.

3. Fill the paper cases with the cake mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Check to see whether they are cooked properly by sticking a wooden skewer or a knife right into one of the cakes - if it comes out clean, they’re done. If it's a bit sticky, pop them back into the oven for a little longer. Remove from the oven and leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack.

4. As soon as the muffins are in the oven, make your runny frosted topping. Place most of the clementine zest, all the lemon zest and the lemon juice in a bowl. Add the soured cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds and mix well. Taste and have a think about it - adjust the amount of lemon juice or icing sugar to balance the sweet and sour. Put into the fridge until your cakes have cooled down, then spoon the topping on to the cakes. Serve on a lovely plate (on a cake stand if you're feeling elegant, or on a rustic slab if you're more of a hunter-gatherer type!), with the rest of the clementine zest sprinkled over. For an interesting flavour and look, a few dried lavender flowers or rose petals are fantastic.

Jamie at Home book cover

Recipe taken from Jamie At Home by Jamie Oliver
©Jamie Oliver 200[8]. All rights reserved
Photography © David Loftus. All rights reserved

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Comments

  1. Instead of the extra teaspoon of baking powder you could try a teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in milk.
    Posted by S on 07/12/2009 10:01:48
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  2. I followed this recipe exactly as above. This recipe makes a lot more than 12 muffins. I got numerous muffins, and even got a loaf cake out of it! Only thing was when I was making the frosted cream topping, it was no way near thick enough, and it didn't look anything like the picture above. It was more yellowy. I had to add a lot more icing sugar than the recipe says, and even then it wasn't thick enough. That is when I decided to make a cake with the left over mix and put the frosting in the middle of the cake instead of on top. None of them (the muffins or cake) rose very much, but I can't fault the taste. They were lovely.
    Posted by KatrinaUK on 14/11/2009 17:31:04
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  3. I love this recipe but despite going by the ingredients religiously mine just don't rise like they do in the recipe photo. Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions?
    Posted by B on 16/10/2009 00:24:47
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  4. I just made these for my kids and I can't believe it, my Daughter loves them...she's 15 and it takes me all my time to get her anywhere anythig healthy any more so thanks for a great recipe Clare :)
    Posted by Clarescreations on 25/06/2009 00:35:14
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  5. Mad about these but the recipe makes far more that 12. Great easy recipe, the carrot version is ood too
    Posted by James on 02/12/2008 20:59:36
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  6. I made these today, they were absolutly brilliant. I reccomend them to everyone.
    Posted by Hannah on 15/11/2008 11:21:41
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