COMFORT FOOD

The last few days in Israel have been less than easy, the last 24 hours have been more than difficult,. Yesterday as we were all absorbing the news of a death of a 2 day old baby on our Yeshuve and feeling utterly helpless, the air raid siren rang out loud and clear , What anyone tells you , it takes a few of our precious seconds for one to register that the noise is a siren . I didn't make it to the shelter in time, an almighty boom shook me to the core, my home shook , a picture fell from the wall, the bomb had fallen less than 5 miles away: a fitful sleep came late last night and in the early dawn light I read of fatalities , acts of violence , and heard the soft yet recognizable,boon of rockets falling in the distance .Today Tel Aviv was subjected to acts of terrorism as a bus was blown apart outside an army base....& gunshots fired on a bus near Migdal Oz just four minutes drive from here

Enough, my neighbour and I felt, we needed something to do to distract ourselves and as she has the shelter, and the bigger kitchen ,we pooled ingredients & I adapted a real unhealthy southern recipe to create these
As her son walked in & out, the goat brayed, a friends husband who had been working in the garden was our official taster as we put the world to rights over a cup of tea and warm Organic sweet potato muffins , somehow some of the terror melted away for a few minutes of normality, and we enjoyed an ultimate healthy comfort food !



Low Gluten Organic Sweet Potato Muffins makes around 20


Oven temperature Moderate, 350 Fahrenheit 177 Celsius Gas Mark 4


You need


2 large sweet potatoes around 1 lb in weight, washed and cooked in their skin in a very hot oven for an hour, then take the potato out the skin and mash it and cool it well.You can do this the night before baking



2 cups spelt flour this is low gluten you can use 100% whole wheat


2 teaspoons non aluminium baking powder


1/2 teaspoon baking soda


1/2 teaspoon good quality sea salt


1 teaspoon each of ground cumin,ground ginger ground cinnamon ground nutmeg


1/2 teaspoon ground cloves & ground cardamom


3/4 cup date honey, or you can use Agave ( organic ) if you can't get date honey reduce to 1/2 cup honey


4 large eggs at room temperature not straight from the fridge


1 cup of either coconut oil melted to liquid or organic sunflower oil coconut oil gives a better flavour


1/4 cup grated orange zest


1 teaspoon good quality vanilla


1/2 cup almond/ soya/ or oat milk. almond is the best
.

Put the oven on to heat and place paper liners in cupcake trays.


Mix all the dry ingredients ( flour, baking agents, spices) together in a large bowl


Beat your eggs , add in the orange zest, oil, vanilla, date honey and milk, mix very well


Add your potato to the flour mixture, then add the liquid and beat well you can use a spoon but for lighter muffins use a mixer,for 2-3 minutes


Place in the cake in cases and place in the oven for 17-20 minutes,


Serve warm , with tea,or vanilla Ice cream if there is any left ( ours disappeared very quickly ) you can store them in an airtight tin for 48 hours then reheat before serving or freeze for up to 6 weeks.