These muffins are filled with jam made of raspberries and blueberries, a combination known as the Queen’s jam in Finland, although we don’t have a queen. We do have a female president, but as conservative as it may seem, I don’t think that President’s muffins sound nearly as appetizing as Queen’s muffins do. These are not very sweet and are a great accompaniment to evening tea or breakfast, especially delicious when halved and enjoyed with some additional berry jam.

I adapted the recipe from the Jam-Filled Oat Bran Muffins recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Unlike in the pretty muffins in the book, the jam in my muffins decided to spurt out a little bit, but they tasted wonderful all the same. This recipe makes about 7 muffins.

Here’s what I used:

Wet ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 5 tablespoons water
• 2 dl oat milk
• 1/2 dl canola oil

Dry ingredients:

• 1 dl rolled oats, finely ground
• 1,2 dl spelt flour
• 1,2 dl wheat flour
• 3/4 dl raw cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1 dl chopped walnuts

Filling:

• 7 teaspoons raspberry-blueberry jam

For the topping:

• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons raw cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons margarine

First, I placed the flaxseed and water in our electric mixer and mixed for a minute or two, until it had a creamy and thick consistence. I haven’t used flaxseed as an egg replacer before, and here it worked very well. But I can imagine that in more delicate things it might have a little too much taste of its own, since it does have a kind of earthy, nutty flavor.

After making the flax egg, I ground the oats in our electric grinder. Then I mixed the wet ingredients in a small bowl. I mixed together the dry ingredients in a bigger bowl, poured in the wet mix, and stirred with a wooden fork just enough to combine everything.

Now, I mixed the topping ingredients in a small bowl and assembled the muffins. Since the jam burst out during baking, I probably wouldn’t follow my own advice in this, but here’s what I did: I greased and floured the muffins tins, and filled 7 muffin tins half full with the batter. Now, I placed a teaspoon of the berry jam in the middle of each muffin, and then covered the jam with the rest of the batter, at which point the muffins cups were completely full.

Now, I sprinkled each muffin with the topping, and baked them in 200 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

To keep the jam inside the muffins, I suppose the amount should be reduced a bit. Before adding the jam, it might be a good idea to make a well in the center area of the muffin batter instead of just spooning the jam over the batter.