Muffins Muffins Muffins....

There was a mischevious old lady in my last building who used to ambush us sneakily in the hallway and regale us with 45-minute-long-epics-about-the-time-she-met-Jimmy-Carter-and-learned-the-true-meaning-of-Christmas. One particularly excellent story involved a bunch of CSIS guys on a cold-war 'business trip' to Moscow. When they arrived in their hotel room, they scoured the place for listening devices and, sure enough, found a mysterious lump under the carpet. Enterprising young spies that they were, they deftly cut the carpet away to find an odd little box screwed into the floor. Naturally, they decided to unscrew the item for a closer look. Loud crash and much angry slavic shouting ensues. I'm not sure whether CSIS picked up the tab for the multi-thousand dollar chandelier they unhooked in the dining-room below, but I would have liked to have been there when these 3 gangstas casually strolled down to the front desk to inquire what all the racket was about...

I felt I needed to repay her somehow for the invaluable life lessons and so made her these vegan-friendly muffins during my last week in the building;
(i snagged this recipe from a blog that snagged it from the book that I once owned but have since lost... take that intellectual property.)

Strawberry Lavender Muffins for Monique the storyteller
(Recipe courtesy of “Fresh at Home” by Ruth Brown)

1 1/4 cup vanilla soymilk
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 tablespoon dried lavender
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
4 cups light spelt flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup diced fresh strawberries
1/3 cup canola oil
1. Prepare muffin tins and preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Heat the soymilk, maple syrup and lavender in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Watch it closely, mine bubbled over naturally!!!
3. Remove from the heat, cover and steep for 5 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve and add the applesauce. Set aside and cool completely.
4. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, add strawberries and toss to coat.
5. Add the milk mixture and the oil to the dry and mix gently until the batter comes together. Try not to overmix.
6. Scoop into muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until the toothpick test comes out dry.
7. Remove from muffin tins and set on a rack to cool.
Makes 18 medium muffins