Muffins

My parents were visiting yesterday morning, usually I make something a little more elaborate than muffins but we had a busy weekend so I had to make something quick. Nectarine muffins seemed like the perfect thing to make, there were a few very ripe nectarines sitting in the fruit bowl begging to be used. Didn't really have time to make streusel so I just sprinkled them with storebought hazelnut crunch (which btw is very good). While I was getting the ingredients ready to start baking I remembered that AFAM was featuring coconut as it's monthly fruit. So I changed milk into coconut milk and I even strayed from my butter obsession/addiction and decided to use coconut butter (coconut oil) instead of butter. So behold one of the few dairy-free recipes on my blog ;)
The muffins rose beautifully in the oven and I was very curious how they would taste. I'm such a big fan of butter that I very very rarely use another type of fat. Not because that other type is not good, but just because it would have been even better with butter :) I was a bit afraid the coconut taste would be a bit too much, I mean, I added a cup of coconut milk and 6 tablespoons of coconut butter. The crazy thing was, I didn't taste coconut...AT ALL! And I'm a very good taster! I was really disappointed because I didn't add any other flavour because I was afraid it would be too many flavours. Ok, there was the nectarine but that wasn't enough. Cinnamon, ginger or cardamom would have been a delicious addition I think, or hazelnuts added to the batter.
As for the texture of the muffin, that was very, very good. Airy, fluffy, moist, everything you would want in a muffin. Will try this recipe again but with butter :) and some spice.
This is my entry to AFAM hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes.

Nectarine muffins with hazelnut topping (adapted from Essentials of baking by Williams-Sonoma)

makes 10-12 depending on how big your cups are (I filled 11 1 dl (3 ½ fl oz) cups)

280 g (1 ¾ cup / 9 oz) flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
155 g (⅔ cup / 4 oz) firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
250 ml (1 cup / 8 fl oz) coconut milk
90 g (6 tbs / 3 oz) coconut butter (coconut oil), melted
150 g (1 ¼ cup / 5 oz) chopped nectarine
hazelnut crunch or chopped hazelnuts
12 muffin cups (I used 1 dl cups)

Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda and brown sugar in a bowl.
Whisk the eggs until blended in another bowl. Add the coconut milk and coconut butter and stir until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Add the nectarine and fold in on making sure not to overmix.
Divide the batter between the muffin cups, filling it about ¾ full. Sprinkle generously with hazelnuts. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Best eaten warm.

There is something that I have been wanting to make for a while: Arabic coffee cupcakes (Arabic coffee is similar to Turkish coffee but has (sometimes) cardamom inside). So when I read about the exotic muffin challenge for Muffin Monday # 6 (hosted by Céline of Sept Lieues) I changed my original idea into Arabic coffee muffins.
I was already familiar with Turkish coffee since I was small because that's the way Croats drink their coffee at home. The first time I tasted Arabic coffee was in 2004 when I joined an excavation at Tell Deir Alla, Jordan. I loved it the moment I drank it. The fragrant spicy cardamom taste and the bitter sweet coffee is just a perfect match. I tried to recreate this perfect match in the muffins. When I finished making the batter it smelled like arabic coffee already...yum! I wasn't sure if the muffins would turn out dark enough because I didn't want to interfere with the taste by adding cocoa powder. Luckily the coffee and sugar did their jobs and the muffins turned out to be dark enough.
As for their taste...the cardamom taste is what hits you first, the second thing you taste is the bitterness of the coffee and in the end you taste everything all at once. The aftertaste is pretty much the same as you would have after drinking Arabic coffee.
I for one love the taste but I'm sure not everybody will agree with me. It's definitely not a regular muffin, not something you'd pack in your child's lunchbox ;)

Arabic coffee muffins

makes 12

300 ml (10 fl oz) water
45 g (1 ⅔ oz) coffee, ground to powder
225 g (8 oz) flour
150 g (5 ⅓ oz) dark moscovado sugar
1 ts baking powder
2 ts cardamom powder
100 g (3 ½ oz) butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cups.
Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat. Add coffee and stir until combined. Return to the heat and allow the coffee to 'come up'. Turn off heat. Allow to stand for 20 minutes. Carefully pour the coffee into a measuring cup until you have 250 ml (8 ½ fl oz), leaving as much coffee residu in the saucepan as possible.
Sift the flour, baking powder and cardamom powder into a big bowl. Stir in the sugar. Add the butter, eggs and coffee. Stir until combined. Mixture will be somewhat lumpy. Fill the muffin cups and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to cool down on a wire rack.

Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice practically forced me (and her many other readers) to bake her all time favourite muffin recipe this morning when I read her most recent entry. And the good girl that I am, I listened and did what she asked me to ;)



As you can see, my muffins were not as good-looking as Ivonne's.

They were indeed very good, the best-tasting muffins I have baked....but....and I must be honest here...not the best I have ever tasted...that was the one I ate for breakfast in Hotel San José in Austin, Texas (wonderful hotel and city BTW). But Ivonne’s came pretty close... (before I forget to mention, the recipe is actually an adaptation by Ivonne of a Marcy Goldman recipe)
What I loved most about this muffin is the delicious streusel that was on top. I never ever made something with streusel before...I’ve read plenty recipes that use streusel but was never really tempted to make any of them. Mainly I think because it takes extra time to make. Ok, it looks nice but besides that it’s more or less extra dough you’re putting on top, right? But now that I actually made something with streusel I understand that it’s not only looks, it adds a lot of taste too or at least this one did.

I did my own adaptation of Ivonne’s adaptation:
- I used melted butter instead of oil (I can’t help it, I’m a butter addict)
- I didn’t have buttermilk (and didn’t feel like going to the grocery store) so I used yoghurt instead
- I omitted the vanilla
- I didn’t have enough walnuts so I used about half walnuts and half pecans
- I think Ivonne used light brown sugar, I used dark
- I used cherries

Still trying my best to come up with tasty (sugar-free & wheat-free) recipes for my friend that is coming over in a week and a half. I found this recipe of dried fruit muffins but wasn’t really sure if I would make them or not...I couldn’t really believe they would be sweet enough with only dried fruits instead of sugar, honey or what have you. I’m very happy that I decided to give them a try because they turned out very good! They were very tasty and sweet. You wouldn’t have guessed that they didn’t contain sugar. They were very moist, airy and not heavy at all...just plain delicious! As for the dried fruits...I didn’t really taste the dates and prunes, they sort of blended in with the texture. It’s a very good treat even if you eat sugar...and high in fibre and low in fat! Gonna be making these ones more often...



The only thing I substituted in the recipe was the flour, I used spelt flour. I must say that I’m very happy with spelt flour, it is a very good substitute for wheat flour. I discovered that one cup of flour weighs about 20-30 grams more than spelt flour. So I used a bit more (in cups) than the original recipe.

Makes about 12 (I used big big paper cups so I only had 6)

160 g (1 cup) chopped dates
80 g (½ cup) raisins
100 g (½ cup) chopped prunes
235 ml (1 cup) water
115 g (4 oz) butter, chopped
140 g (1 generous cup) whole meal spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
rind of ½ orange

Combine the dried fruits and water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and allow to boil on medium for 5 minutes (the fruits soak op the water). Remove from heat and add butter. Stir until melted. Leave to cool.
Preheat oven to 175ºC (350ºF). Butter and flour a muffin pan or line it with paper muffin cups Mix spelt flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.
Add eggs and orange rind to the fruit mixture. Stir until combined. Add flour mixture and stir until combined. Spoon into muffin pan, fill up to ¾. Bake for 15-20 minutes (my muffins were bigger so I baked them for 30 minutes).

1 muffin - 380 kcal
100 g – 250 kcal

carbohydrate 32 g – protein 4 g – fat 11 g (saturated fat 7 g) – fibre 5 g