From little things, big things grow...

Well that was certainly the case with The Chia Company. One man's vision to make an impact on a global scale, led farmer John Foss to the chia plant. Chia is the richest plant based source of Omega 3, dietary fibre, protein and antioxidants. John is largely the reason that chia has become something we all know about and can buy at any decent store.
He started off trialling growing chia in Kununurra (in WA's north), perfecting the growing process before attempting to grow the business itself. Then the marketing side kicked in. It's obvious both of those aspects have been a raging sucess, as The Chia Company is now the world's largest chia producer.
The company is also the only of its kind to manage from farm right through to the finished product, offering full product traceability, with the ability to track from shelf right back to the exact paddock that particular crop was grown in.

So what do you do with chia? Here in the Everyday Baker household, we love the stuff. We generally sprinkle it on our cereal in the morning, for a little extra goodness. But lately I've also been incorporating it into some recipes as well. It doesn't have a very strong flavour, which makes it ideal to add to sweet or savoury dishes to bump up the nutritional value. I took the Pretty Darn Good Muffin recipe and turned them into Pear, white chocolate and chia muffins.
Delish. 

Pear, White Chocolate and Chia Muffins

Ingredients
1 cup plain white flour
1 cup wholemeal or spelt flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar (I use raw caster sugar)
2 pears, sliced thinly (I use the mandolin side of a grater)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
80g butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1/2 natural yoghurt
3/4 cup white choc bits
2 tablespoons chia
Method
Heat oven to 165 degrees Celsius (fan forced) and line a 12 hole muffin tin with papers.
Mix flours, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl, whisking gently to mix before stirring in sliced pear and white chocolate.
Place egg, vanilla, butter, milk and yoghurt into a jug and whisk together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix together with a spoon, until just mixed. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins and sprinkle with chia, bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

More to come on the chia front...