Save squishy berries from the food-waste bin by making today’s streusel muffins. I’ve based the recipe on the classic German blueberry kuchen, which feature a cake base moistened with fresh berries, all covered in a crunchy, crumble-style topping. I’ve boosted the flavour and fortified the mix by using whole spelt and rye flours with rapadura sugar, though regular wheat flour and brown sugar will work as nicely, so use whatever flour, sugar, nuts and spices you have to hand. As for the fruit content, even just a small handful of over-ripe berries will do.
Berry streusel muffins
These muffins make a great use of past-their-best berries, by upcycling squishy fruit into a crowdpleasing cake. They also work well using frozen berries and other ripe fruit, including diced pear, kiwi, banana, pineapple and peach. Unlike the traditional blueberry kuchen, I’ve pared down the recipe so it works using just a small amount of fruit. Rather than bake a small single cake, I also thought it would be nice to try out the idea with muffins, and they worked brilliantly: moist, crunchy streusel goodness.
Makes 6 large muffins or 8-12 cupcakes
For the topping
20g wholemeal flour – I used rye
25g unrefined brown sugar – I used rapadura
10g rolled oats
30g chopped nuts – I used almond slivers (optional)
1 pinch sea salt
1 pinch nutmeg, or ¼ tsp cardamom or/and cinnamon (optional)
30g butter, cut into pea-sized cubes
For the cake base
180g wholemeal flour – I used spelt (rye is too heavy)
1½ tsp baking powder
90g unrefined brown sugar – I used rapadura
¼ tsp sea salt
Finely grated zest of ½ organic unwaxed lemon
100ml whole milk
40g butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
About 100-125g over-ripe berries
First make the topping: in a medium bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, sugar, rolled oats, chopped nuts, if using, and a pinch each of sea salt and freshly grated nutmeg, if using, then mix in the diced cold butter and set aside.
Now for the base: mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then stir in the lemon zest. Pour in the milk, stir in the butter, egg and vanilla, then beat until you have a smooth batter.
Grease and line a deep, six-hole muffin tray (or an eight- or 12-hole cupcake tin), then divide the cake batter between the moulds. Top each one with some berries, then cover with a spoonful of the streusel mixture. Bake in a 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
