We made these garlic muffins over the Christmas holidays as an alternative to garlic bread and they were a huge success! Fluffy and deliciously savoury, they made a lovely accompaniment to soup one day and cold meat another… and all of our children loved them.
We first made these garlic muffins back when our third child was 8 months old and a real garlic fiend. We were looking for a soft and squidgy finger food – a replacement for garlic bread that would also be low in salt. As you’ll know if you visit us regularly, we LOVE to use garlic liberally in our baby food recipes, both for the wonderful flavour it imparts (which, we believe, has always encouraged our little ones to eat their veggies and everything else with gusto!) – and also to make the most of garlic’s many health-promoting properties (which we discuss here).
She adored the muffins, as did we all – although we did receive a few comments about how ‘aromatic’ she was the next day! We hope your little one enjoys them too (eat some yourself and you won’t even notice the ‘aroma’!) – this recipe is perfect for babies who are competently gumming their food and who are already enjoying whole eggs. It would also be a perfect food for baby led weaning!
NOTE: In our recipe below, we’ve listed white AND whole wheat flours. However, we made the pictured muffins at Christmas, when supplies of many foods (including staples like whole wheat flour!) were sadly lacking here on our little island! So the muffin in our photo was made with JUST all purpose flour – a perfectly tasty alternative, of course, but less nutritious than muffins made partly or completely with whole wheat flour.
To Make Garlic Muffins for Your Baby You Will Need…
3 small garlic cloves, crushed*
4 oz (1 cup) all purpose (plain) flour
4 oz (1 cup) whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 beaten egg
8 fl oz (1 cup) whole milk
*You might want to experiment a little here, as the amount of garlic you use really does depend on its strength. It would be a good idea to use very pungent garlic sparingly, whereas you might want to use more of a milder variety. We found three cloves to give a robust, though not overpowering flavour, but you might like to start out with one or two and work your way up! For a more mellow flavour, try using roasted garlic instead.
Preheat the oven to 400 deg F, 200 deg C.
Take two bowls. In one, mix together the two kinds of flour, the baking powder, salt and sugar. In the second, mix together the egg and milk, then stir in the crushed garlic.
Gently combine the wet ingredients with the dry, taking care not to ‘over-mix’, but simply ensuring the the dry ingredients are all thoroughly moistened.
Grease a 12 hole muffin tin.
Spoon the mixture into the tins and place in the oven.
Bake for 15 to 20 mins, until risen and golden.
Cool to a safe handling temperature and serve as an accompaniment to a meal, or on their own with a little butter or cream cheese.
More garlicky goodness…
Onions and garlic may help with iron absorption
Gourmet mashed potato for baby
We love…
…these Reusable Silicone Baking Cups (Amazon) for making muffins, or for little, easy to hold meatloaves for baby! Food doesn’t stick to them – instead, it pops right out, so they take two seconds to clean… better than scrubbing a muffin tin!
