Perfect for a quick & simple breakfast
If I asked you to think of the best thing that happened in your life this last week, what would it be?
Anyone who read my most recent post will know that we celebrated our eight year anniversary this weekend. Smiles filled our flat, glasses were raised and some seriously delicious celebratory food was consumed. It was a wonderful weekend, a truly special occasion and probably what I would highlight as my most amazing thing if asked the question above.
Toasted muffins spread with salty butter are hard to beat
Except that if I thought carefully, looked closely at that celebration and wondered why it was even happening, I’d realize that it was as much the accumulation of a thousand little moments as a special event in itself. Celebrating an anniversary is an incredible thing, but only comes as the result of a year (or eight) of words, thoughts and gestures, of shared experience, love and laughter, each one almost insignificant on its own but each a piece building into a much bigger picture.
Dust each muffin with semolina for a crunchy exterior
The posts that get the most comments on this blog tend to be impressive recipes – think four-tiered cakes layered with chocolate and caramel or flaky croissants that took hours to perfect. But the ones that get the most traffic can be a little more surprising – homemade garlic bread baguettes, homemade digestive biscuits, a simple loaf – reinforcing this idea that grand gestures are great, but it’s the little, simpler things that keep us ticking over, that make us happiest: our (in this instance, literal) bread and butter.
Which brings me to this recipe for seeded spinach muffins. It’s simple, it isn’t cake (despite the deceptive title of muffin, the ‘English’ version being a little more austere) and it certainly isn’t a showstopper, but it’s special in that basic, everyday way: a quietly held hand or a look of understanding for the food world, made with wholemeal flour, iron-rich spinach and vitamin and protein-packed seeds.
Accompany the muffins with a bowl of berries & freshly squeezed juice
We ate these muffins on Saturday morning, mine topped with avocado and accompanied by berries and juice, Carnivorous Fiancé’s hidden under a stack of bacon and eggs. It wasn’t meant to be a celebratory meal or one of those memorable ‘moments’, except that somehow it was.
Life is made of these moments, whether eating in a Michelin starred restaurant or breaking bread at the breakfast table. Sometimes it’s important to take a step back and appreciate each one, remembering not only amazing events, but the little steps and simple things that brought us there.
Beautiful bright flowers to celebrate our anniversary
Seeded Spinach Breakfast Muffins (adapted from these Kale, Chilli & Buckwheat Breakfast Muffins)
(makes about 12)
Ingredients:
150ml milk
150ml water
165g spinach, chopped
20g butter, melted
400g strong wholemeal bread flour
50g strong white bread flour
10g dried yeast
1 – 2 tbsp each pumpkin, poppy & sesame seeds
Pinch sea salt
Cornmeal or semolina for dusting
Method:
In a blender, whizz together the milk, water, spinach and melted butter. Place in a saucepan over a low heat and gently warm until tepid.
Weigh the flours into a mixing bowl and add the yeast, seeds and salt. Add the tepid liquid mix and work together into a wet, sticky dough before kneading on a work surface until smooth and silky, about 10 minutes. Once the dough is soft, smooth and elastic, put it into a clean bowl, cover and leave to rise for an hour.
Warm a heavy based saucepan over a low heat. Dust your work surface with the cornmeal or semolina then tip out your dough and gently stretch it out (don’t roll) until it has a uniform thickness of about 2cm. Using a 7.5cm cutter, carefully cut discs from the dough then place them in the in the saucepan to dry fry, making sure they don’t touch each other.
The muffins will need about five minutes on one side before flipping and frying for a further four minutes on the other side. Do check occasionally to make sure they aren’t burning.
When your muffins are toasty and puffed up, remove from the pan, split open and enjoy.
Oh my days, this looks like such a perfect weekend breakfast full of good stuff too, I have a 10k race coming up soon, think these will be my post run treat! Love the photography too.
Oh this is so true. It’s why I never really feel the need to make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day because it’s just one day of many (admittedly one that involves slightly more chocolate than normal) and every day should really be filled with those little gestures of love. A perfect little weekend breakfast sounds like my idea of an amazing moment : )
I totally agree! It’s the little moments, and how you are as a couple in those moments that really defines a relationship. Grand gestures of love are well and good, but for me, I love nothing more than curling up on the couch with my hubby or those times he looks at me with a big smile and tells me I’m beautiful. It’s not orchestrated, it’s all about the moment.
As for the moment, I’d love to take a few to enjoy one of these muffins. I’d love one topped with avocado and poached egg for breakfast please. Do you deliver to Australia 😀
These look delicious for a breakfast!
Our best moments this week have been chillout time, we are both completely flat out. I got back home about 5pm on Sunday from an exhausting trip to Brussels (think 3-hour delays and 12+ hour days), to find my other half on the sofa, watching TV snuggled under the duvet. I climbed in and was as happy as I could have been!
I love English muffins, especially hot with lots of butter. I bet they’re even better freshly made. I look forward to trying this recipe.
Riverside Baking – thank you, enjoy!
Kathryn – I’ve always thought Valentine’s Day was overrated, especially with our anniversary so close to it. Much better to make every day a special one 🙂
Jennifer – I would if I could! As long as you’d send back some of your delicious creations too, mind 🙂
Bakerama – sounds like bliss!
Stephanie – homemade they really are hard to beat.
What a beautiful post and what a lovely recipe. I once made crumpets at home but that was quite a messy exercise given the liquid batter. This sounds much less messy and the addition of spinach sounds right up my alley. I am all for avocado on bread as well, so tasty!
It really is the simplest things in life that are the most precious! I love how you’ve taken the plain Jane english muffin and turned it into something wonderful with all these fun mix-ins!
I just had a fluffly English muffin with egg and cheese for breakfast, and now I wish it was seeded and spinach-filled! This looks great. Belated happy anniversary 🙂
A warm english muffin studded with seeds and spinach and topped with melting butter sounds like the perfect metaphor for a healthy warm, relationship. Congratulations on finding each other!
Totally agree about the simple things in life often giving us the most pleaseure. These muffins definitely look suitable for this category – delicious but healthy too. Very keen to try them.
You perfectly wrote what I think about celebrating, it´s not one day, which might even find you in the wrong mood, but the things that led you there. Homemade english muffins are one of my favorite recipes, it is an accomplishment to get them just right. Adding spinach is great Kate, they look perfect!
Sophia – thank you. Muffins are much less messy than crumpets and no need for rings! Although I would like to try making crumpets one day…
Joanne – thank you 🙂
Bianca – the seeds and spinach do make it very special (and wholesome!)
Sarah – ahh, thank you.
Andrea – do let me know how you get on.
Paula – thank you so much for your kind words 🙂
aw happy anniversary you two 🙂 You always make baking sound liek it’s so easy but I know it’s not (well for me at least). the best thing that happened in my life this last week was talking to my sisters over skype for an hour, I’ve missed them x
Happy anniversary to you and your fiance! 8 years..wow!! Is that a sort of common law in the UK (if you live together?) I couldn’t agree more with your lovely write-up…one day is not indicative of years of wonderful..every day should be a celebration (gifts would be nice on a daily basis lol) Anyway…these muffins are what I should be eating more of. Healthy spinach and seeds,and undoubtedly, they taste amazing. Great twist on the basic English muffin!
I love breakfast and these would be perfect topped with an egg! I love that you talk about a collection of moments! It’s so true that this is how life happens! Congratulations.
Pingback: Squid Ink Pasta | thelittleloaf
YUM I was looking for something savory to make, like a biscuit, and I think this might just be it! Thanks for the post! Looks great! ~nerdwithtaste.wordpress.com
I like this original muffins!
This looks amazing!!! I can’t wait to try it!!
Check out my blog if you get a chance. It would mean a lot to me!
http://www.manusmenu.blogspot.com
Heading over to have a look now! 🙂
Pingback: Chunky Homemade Granola | thelittleloaf
My 18month is an incredibly difficult eater and even though I’m a food writer it’s a constant challenge to come up with tasty ideas for him! I reckon these will be a hit xx