Hello Friday!

I’m so happy it’s already Friday (I’m sure you were waiting for it as much as me). Today’s recipe is our signature one “Lemon chia seed muffins”, which in Spanish means “magdalenas de chia con limón” and that honors the name of this blog. This muffins has an amazing flavor as a result of the citric touch of the lemon and the softness of the batter.

This recipe doesn’t necessary needs to be baked as muffins, you can make a whole cake just changing the baking time. Apart from muffins, I used mini silicone baking molds to have a miniature version of the cake (they were done by around 20 minutes).

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 1/2 cups white all-purpose flour (but you can perfectly use whole wheat flour or a combination of both)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil extra light
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F or 180 C. Line baking cups if you are making muffins or grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray or oil.
2. In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, chia seeds, lemon juice and zest and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
4. With an electric mixer on high-speed, beat olive oil and sugar in a large bowl until well combined (3-4 minutes). Add vanilla and eggs one at the time, and mixing in between each one.
5. Add the dry ingredients (beating with lower speed) in three batches, alternating with two batches of the chia yogurt mixture.
6. Pour batter evenly in muffin cups or on your loaf pan.
7. For muffins, bake for about 20-23 minutes and for the complete cake 40-45 minutes. Insert a toothpick, if it comes out clean your cake is done!
8. Take out and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
   

   

The cake is ready now to be enjoyed, but if you want to add a final touch you can prepare some icing to put on top. For that you will need:

• 1 cup confectioner sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon zest

Combine everything together, adjust consistency by adding more lemon juice or sugar and when you get a glue consistency pour it onto the cake. Next step? Eat cake! haha

In this recipe, the chia seeds definitely play a big role on texture and nutritional value, so make sure you start including it on your diet! In most of the pancake post, we suggest to top them with some chia seeds or add them to yogurt, fruits, cereal or salads. Here is why:

Chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.) are considered as a functional food or ingredient because of being a natural source of some bio active substances such as poly phenol compounds, dietary fiber, and omega-3 fatty acid. In human consumption, it can be used alone as whole chia seed or for the preparation especially bakery products. It has high antioxidant properties and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitory effects in vitro. It is considered that chia prevents from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and obesity with its high omega-3 fatty acid and dietary fiber content. Furthermore, previous studies demonstrated the fiber and protein fractions of chia seed can be used in food industry for many purposes.

Have a great weekend!

Remember to include fruits and vegetables on your daily diet and to stay active!