Welcome to bake and nourish … fig muffins

Tadaaaa … wow, this is happening. I am writing my first blog post. Ever.

I ‘started’ bake and nourish some years ago. Actually, it started as ‘my little baking project’. I had already discovered my passion for baking and my love for healthy and nourishing food. And I somehow knew that I want this to become a bigger part of my life. I didn’t have any idea what that would mean but instead had a ton of excuses … my kitchen in nyc is too small to bake … who should I bake for … I can’t eat all of it … I am busy at work … blablabla.

Thanks to some amazing friends that challenged me I finally decided to finally do something. I decided to bake for my coworkers. Because everyone loves little treats that help you through a rough day, am I right? And because I also always wanted to give back to the community I started what I called ‘my little baking project’. On a biweekly basis, I would bake a cake or pastries for my colleagues at work in exchange for a little donation which I passed on to a non-profit organization.

Around that time I also met Ksenia from breakfast criminals who introduced me to chia pudding, green smoothies, and superfoods. I was inspired by her energy and dedication to what she is passionate about. And I was curious about this social media thing she was doing that helped her creating such a powerful community. So I decided to give Instagram a try. I realized that I love sharing my passion with other people through pretty food pics and so I spent a few years baking for work and posting my pictures on Instagram…

… and again it was some lovely friends who helped me bringing ‘my little baking project’ to the next level.

I baked hundreds of cookies with my friend Alex  to sell at a pop-up store in Brooklyn, my friend Alice commissioned me to make her wedding cakes, I co-hosted a ‘Yoga meats cake’ event with my friend Julia at santosa yoga in munich, and my friend Benedikt finally inspired me to come up with a name that better represents what I stand for.

This was when bake and nourish was born. It represents the balance between celebrating food and taking care of yourself. The balance between my love for baking and my interest in nutrition.

Since then more and more people started to ask me about recipes. Or how to substitute wheat flour and sugar for healthier ingredients. That’s when I realized that I want to have a blog where I can share recipes, baking tips, and my thoughts around food in general. That was a year ago…

Launching a blog felt pretty intimidating at first. How does one build a website? What is a widget? And what am I gonna write about? But then I thought ‘if you can dream it, you can do it’. And now it’s happening, and I am feeling so proud and excited! I’d like to thank my family and my friends who have been such fantastic support on this journey! I couldn’t have done it without your encouragement and love – thank you!

When creating my blog, i realized that I don’t have any pretty pictures of me baking. So I asked my friend Sabine who is a great amateur photograph if she could help me out. We spent a wonderful afternoon baking and taking pictures, and it was so much fun.

When I thought about what to bake, i couldn’t stop thinking about the pretty figs I see everywhere these days. Figs are so delicate, and add a nice texture to any dish.

So I decided to make some almond fig muffins. They are made of wholegrain spelt flour and almond meal and are sweetened with apple puree and a little bit of raw cane sugar.

They are not too sweet and are perfect for breakfast or dessert. The batter is enough for around 16-18 muffins, or you could make these in a rectangular bake tray as well.

Well, this was my first blog post, and there is more to come … tons of recipes and stories about baking delicious treats and nourishing your body with healthy food.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog and please try as many recipes as you can and share your feedback with me!

Talk soon.

Love,

Marion

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Almond fig muffins

September 17, 2017

Servings: 16-18

Prep: 30 min

Cook: 20 min

Total: 50 min

Difficulty: Easy

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Healthy almond muffins with sweet figs

By: BAKE & NOURISH

Ingredients

• 350g unsweetened apple puree
• 200g greek yogurt
• 3 organic free-range eggs
• 50ml liquid coconut oil
• 75g raw cane sugar
• 250g whole grain spelt flour
• 200g almond meal (or ground almonds)
• 15g baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cardamom
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 pinch of salt
• around 8 figs

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat the oven to 200 °C (390 °F) and line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.
• Step 2 In a bowl, whisk apple puree, yogurt, eggs, and the coconut oil together.
• Step 3 Sift the flour into a separate bowl and combine with the other dry ingredients.
• Step 4 Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients, and gently fold them together. Don’t over-mix it otherwise, the dough becomes sticky.
• Step 5 Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, about ¾ of the tins.
• Step 6 Remove the ends of the figs and cut them in eighths.
• Step 7 Place around 5 fig pieces into each muffin tin and press them down gently.
• Step 8 Bake them for around 25 minutes, let them cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the tin and allowing them to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Step 9 Repeat the last 4 steps with the remaining batter.