I had heard about agave nectar for some time but did not use it until recently. Out of curiosity I purchased a bottle from my local health food store and used it in the Crystallized Ginger Soy Smoothie that I made. It worked very well with the smoothie as it did not have a strong flavor and it blended in easily.
Agave nectar has a rich amber color similar to that of honey or maple syrup. The viscosity is more like that of the maple syrup. It does have calories but is 40% sweeter than sugar with a lower glycemic index. Thus, less is required to sweeten foods. It has a very mild taste and can be used as a general sweetener and in cooking and baking.
A special thanks to BetterBody Foods & Nutrition for sending me a sample of Xagave, their brand of agave nectar together with a cookbook recently. Xagave is a blend of nectars from the blue and white agave plants. Their agave nectar has a very neutral and clean taste.
Carob comes from the sweet edible pulp in the pods of the carob tree. These trees are native to the Mediterranean. After drying, the pulp is roasted and ground into a powder resembling cocoa powder. Carob is often used as a substitute for chocolate although the flavor and taste are not the same. It is naturally sweet and so carob products generally use less sugar. It is also free of caffeine and theobromine found in chocolate. It has a malty taste with bitter overtones. Carob chips have a very similar appearance to that of chocolate chips. To learn more about carob, please click here.
There were many interesting recipes in the Delicious Meets Nutritious, Xagave The Complete Sugar Replacement Cookbook but this one caught my eye. I had blueberries in the fridge and most of the other ingredients in my pantry. I made a few changes to the recipe to adapt to our needs and tastes. The muffins were moist and very delicious. My boys loved it!
Healthy Berry Muffins
Dry Ingredients
1 cup organic whole spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ cup rolled oats
Wet Ingredients
½ cup Xagave
1 egg
1 cup organic vanilla bean non-fat yogurt
¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
Mixed-ins
1 cup fresh blueberries
½ cup sweetened organic dried cranberries
½ cup organic carobs
½ cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 325˚F. Line a 12 standard size muffin pan with muffin liners. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.
In another bowl, add all wet ingredients. Using a hand whisk, whisk till combined. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Fold in blueberries, cranberries, carobs, and walnuts. Spoon batter into lined muffin pan about ⅔ full. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes.
Great for breakfast or afternoon snack with a cup of tea.
Disclaimer: Although these products were sent to me for free, I did not receive any monetary compensation for this write up. What was written are my personal thoughts and view. For full disclaimer, please click here.
Enjoy…..and have a wonderful day!
these look insanely good. I like baking with spelt flour too. I think it has sort of a malt taste which is very tasty in certain baked goods. Anyway…just pack up half a dozen and I'll send you my address…
These look fantastic….and wow! Chocked full of yummies. Spelt flour is really good, I like to use it when baking, it has a really nice taste!
These are healthy and so many good things in these muffin treats.
Wonderful tasty muffins!!
These muffins are heavenly with carob and agave flavors in it. I love to eat carob as it is but never seen its chips. Must be great as substitute for chocolate chips.
I love carob chips, people don't really use them that much and with the berries, what a nice combination!
I have the same bottle haha. Love the wholewheat muffins and a pinch of cinnamon! Blueberries are in season so the timing is perfect to try this! I made strawberry muffins recently too 🙂
Those look so yummy! I love when I can mix yummy with healthy. Agave is great stuff, isn't it?
Biren, these muffins look yummie, like the idea of them being healthy 🙂
They don't look healthy? 🙂 I love agave nectar, we use it regularity. These look delirious…
I've only used Agave Nectar once and really liked it. It was a salad dressing recipe. These muffins look mighty tasty.
Biren, not only do these look delicious, but they are high fiber and have no A.P. flour! That's great. Does spelt have gluten? I'm not sure, but I'm thinking these might even be gluten free. Hmm? Either way, I'm going to get some spelt and try these. Ooh, and I love that you used agave too. I'm trying really hard to lower my sugar and refined carbs, and it's so difficult. Agave helps a bit…
p.s. I'm so happy that you said my Tofu is Asian! Yes!
Sounds really yummy & healthy
Thanks Jillyann! I have been using spelt flour for a while now and I really like it. Baked goods using spelt tend to be a little more tender. Would love to send you some but with my two boys on their summer holidays, it didn't last too long 🙂
It is a good substitute for chocolate for people who do not want to take chocolate for some reason or other. However, I must say that the taste is not quite the same.
Spelt is an ancient wheat and is a cousin to the regular wheat. It is not gluten free but baked goods made with spelt tend to be more tender and that is nice. I really like the agave nectar and will be using more of it in my cooking and baking 🙂
As you know, I am not much of a baker (but I'm working at it) so there are quite a few new things to me in this post, such as spelt flour, carob chips, and I've heard of Xagave but have never tried it. This was an interesting read for me, thank you for sharing Biren.
Your berry muffins look delicious! I love that you added cinnamon to them too.
These look so healthy and yummy! I am going to try to make them.
wow, those are the best blueberry muffins I have ever seen!
Gosh… new ingredients but that is my poor knowledge of baking.
Love berry muffins….they are not only healthy, but also very pretty and delicious looking!
Wow! Are these muffins with berries, or berries with muffin?? LOL those are just EXPLODING with berry goodness! Love that they're are healthier and if teenaged boys loved them, who else would refuse these?
Hi, this is my 1st time here, you have a wonderful blog, will come back more often. This sound healthy and good.
Carob is a blast from the past for me. It makes me think of college days, when I'd be eating it in trail mix because it was the "in'' healthy thing. I confess I prefer chocolate these days. But can ya blame a girl? 😉
So tempting, hehe…
This look so tempting with berries and so importantly it is healthy.
I love agave nectar and it looks perfect in these muffins!
Hi, thanks for visiting and following. I hope you will visit often 🙂
Healthy and yummy!!!
i love this..
Wow those muffins has come out so perfect and gorgeous..!!!!!
What wonderful tasty muffins. I love that you were able to make them tempting and healthy. I hope you are having a great day. Blessings…Mary
I just love muffins…especially healthy ones!
Lots of yummy love,
Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner ” target=”_blank”>http://www.mawhats4dinner.com
sounds like a great muffin! I bought some agave but have not used it yet……its good to have an idea of how to use it! thanks so much for sharing!
My parents used to buy me carob chips to snack on when I was a kid. I have a hard time finding them now. Your muffins are packed with delicious goodies! And I love how healthy they are.
YUM! I love that they are healthy–but don't look like it!
So loaded with blueberries…yummy!
Looks delicious and healthy. I love to see all the berry juice oozing through.
I love agave it works perfect in any recipe and blends easily, great muffins and so cool you were sent a great product…
sweetlife
Yummmm, thank you Biren for a healthy way to enjoy some cravings.
Biren – these look just too bloody good – the berries spotting the whole of the inside with the carob and nuts is too good to be true! Yummm….
I love using agave nectar in everything 🙂
Biren,
Great job with these muffins. I love blueberries and all of their antioxidant goodness.
Yum muffins! I use Agave a lot in my baking,I've tried and reviewed the product in my blog too 😀