These Apricot Millet Muffins are low in sugar but high in deliciousness! Make these for your next snack or breakfast and try not to eat them all in one sitting.
Besides shopping at the farmers’ market for the food we eat during the week, we also like to stop when we get there and get breakfast from the prepared food vendors. For years we have been partial to pupusas, but in recent days, we’ve been switching things up a bit.
One of our newest obsessions are the multi-grain muffins from Valerie Confections, a local bakery in California. They set up the most beautiful display of baked goods and it is impossible to resist stopping by to check everything out, let alone not buy something. Pastries, cookies, chocolates, hand pies and — the inspiration for today’s recipe — beautiful little muffins packed with millet and pieces of dried apricot. My kids and husband adore them.
I’ve tried to pry the ingredient list out of one of the owners on more than one occasion. He will only hint as to what is inside these baked marvels, and even the few ingredients he would share are more likely found in a professional bakery than in a home kitchen. So, I finally stopped grilling him and got to work on developing my own apricot muffin that would work for the rest of us.
These sweet, delicious gems are truly a treat. They may not be exactly what we buy at the farmers’ market, but if you saw the crumbs left on my family’s plates after I served them the first batch I made, you’d swear I got pretty darn close! They’re packed with antioxidants thanks to the apricots and the millet gives an added fiber boost.
If you’re looking for more healthy muffin recipes try my Banana Wheat Germ Muffins, Orange Date Muffins, Spinach Cake Muffins and Flourless Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins to name a few!
Apricot Millet Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup millet
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- 3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Place millet on a baking sheet and toast for 5-6 minutes. Remove and toss the millet to make sure it is toasted evenly and toast an additional 5-6 minutes. Set aside and cool.
- In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the toasted millet.
- In a separate bowl or standing mixer, beat the butter and sugar until combined, about 1 minute. Add the egg and beat for another minute.
- Add the mashed bananas, vanilla extract and buttermilk and beat until combined.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix in the chopped apricots until just combined.
- Grease muffin tins and fill cups 2/3 full with batter.
- Bake for 20 minutes if using regular muffin tins (or until a toothpick comes out clean) or 14 minutes if using mini muffin tins (or until a toothpick comes out clean).
- Cool muffins for 5 minutes in their tins, remove and continue to cool.
Got great reviews even though we subbed the toasted millet for cooked millet.
[…] also wanted to make this and this, but this was the same day that I also ran my errands and did groceries for the week, made […]
Hmm I think you could leave out the bananas and it would be okay. Maybe add an extra egg!
We have a banana allergy in this house…what can I substitute for it?
Anyone make a GF version of this and if so, what substitutions have you made?
Recently found millet at a small local health food store and thought I’d try this recipe! My daughter and I made them together tonight using fresh apricots and they were absolutely delicious!! Thanks for another great recipe!
very yummy!turned out nice and moist. thanks so much. i would have never thought about using coconut oil. the only thing is this was my first time trying millet. still seedy after cooked not sure if it is normal or should be like quinoa after cooked… good either way. made muffins a little crunchy.
I would try using coconut oil (it comes in a jar and is about the consistency of softened butter) in place of the butter at the same measurement. Then use rice, almond or coconut milk in place of the buttermilk, again using the same measurement! Let me know how they turn out!
my son has a milk allergy..was thinking of substituting buttermilk for coconut milk ..do u think i could substitute the butter for oil? and if so how much?
I made these for my 14 month old & he loved them. The only thing I changed was I soaked the dried apricots before chopping them.
Bananas Health Benefits…
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Just made this and they are so great! I love the crunch of the millet and the tang of the apricots! Thanks for another great recipe!
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Catherine, these were absolutely delicious (as always). I had no idea what these would taste like, but since the rest of your recipes have been huge hits in our house we went searching for millet and dried apricots (without the preservative). I just tried my first apricot millet muffin and it tastes like a moist, sweet, banana muffin with an added crunch from the toasted millet. Absolutely delicious. Thank you again!
Couscous is actually a pasta product made from semolina wheat. I don’t think it would work, but you never know untiul you try. It won’t however, give you all the lovely nutritional benefits of millet. Perhaps amaranth if you could find that? But, if you cannot find millet, I doubt amaranth is going to be available either. 🙁 I find millet in the bulk section of my standard grocery store (Save On).
My two local grocery stores did not carry millet either. However, we have a nature food store that carries it. Maybe a search online for nature food stores in your area? I understand what you mean, our Whole Foods is 45 minutes away, and we don’t have Trader Joes in Florida.