Double Mango Muffins for #MuffinMonday

I am back home again from my two weeks’ holiday tour just in time for Muffin Monday and I couldn’t be more pleased about this week’s ingredient:  Mango!   When I was little and we lived in Trinidad, my favorite way of eating mangoes was with hot chili peppers and salt and a shot of ketchup, when the mangoes were still green.  We called it mango chow.   (I know, I know, I had strange tastebuds for a child.  But my older sister loved it too, so it wasn’t just me!)  When we moved back to the States a few years and one more country later, green mangoes were impossible to find and we were lucky if there were even ripe ones in the shops.  As a seasonal imported item, mangoes were very expensive back in the early 1970s, so they were a rare treat, but my mother would buy skinny cans of mango nectar to put in my lunch on special occasions, like a class field trip.   There was only one supermarket in Houston where mango nectar was available, so I knew that she had gone out of her way to buy that drink, which made it all the more special.

Now mangoes are available year-round, around the world, if you are willing to pay the price, and I usually have mango nectar in juice boxes in the freezer for whenever someone has a hankering for a mango popsicle.  Just cut the top of the box off and push the frozen nectar up to eat.  So refreshing and delicious!  And my cupboard almost always has a bag or two of dried mango, which is great as a sweet snack.  Even my helper loves the chewy slices.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
3/4 cup or 170g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola oil
2 large eggs
1 (about 9 oz or 260g) just ripe mango (about 3/4 cup or 140g chopped, without seed and peel)
1 3/4 oz or 50g dried mango

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.

If you have a preferred method of peeling a mango, by all means, have at it.  If not, may I recommend my method?  Balance your mango on the narrow side and slice as close to the large seed as you can with a sharp knife, cutting one side off.   Turn and repeat for the other side.

Using the sharp tip of your knife, cut slices into the mango flesh, stopping short of cutting through the peel.

Scoop the slices out with a spoon.  

Now run your knife around the piece with the seed still in the middle, removing the remaining circle of peel.

Use your knife to slice off the rest of the flesh, getting as close to the seed as you can.  (Set aside the seed for chewing on later, when you’ve popped the muffins in the oven.  This is the baker’s privilege.)  The resulting slices are perfect for salads.

For our muffins today, though, chop the mango slices into small pieces.

As for the dried mango, use a sharp knife to chop the pieces into little chunks, about the size of raisins.  Divide the pieces into two piles of about two-thirds and one-third.  Set the smaller pile aside to use for garnishing the batter before baking.

Combine your flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your milk, egg and oil.

Pour your egg/milk mixture into your dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Fold in the fresh mango and the larger pile of dried, chopped mango.

Divide the muffin batter between the muffin cups.

Top each cup with a few of the reserved dried mango pieces for decoration.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Remove the muffins and cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

This basic muffin recipe was originally published in the Houston Chronicle and you can read about it by following this link.

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street, a culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.  Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  Make sure to go and check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with this week!

Plus learn all you ever need to know about muffins, right here at Muffin 101.

Jam Yogurt Muffins for #MuffinMonday

The best part about these muffins is how versatile the recipe is.  You can change the flavor by using whatever yogurt you have in the refrigerator, along with whatever jam you have on hand.   This time I chose strawberry yogurt and a mixed berry jam but you could do peach yogurt with peach preserves or lemon yogurt with orange marmalade or, or, or …  whatever combination takes your fancy.

I have to warn you that if you are the type of person who loves to eat muffin batter, despite the danger of raw eggs, do not tempt yourself by tasting this one.  You will end up eating the whole bowl and not baking any muffins.  And that would be a shame.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 100g light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
 1/2 cup or 90g sweetened yogurt with fruit
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml jam of your choice
 1/2 cup or 115g butter, melted and cooled

Topping:  2 tablespoons jam, warmed, to brush on baked muffins.  Optional.

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin tin by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.

Combine your flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your milk, yogurt, egg, vanilla, jam and melted butter.

Pour your egg/milk mixture into your dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Divide the muffin batter between the muffin cups.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove the muffins from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Remove the muffins and cool completely on a wire rack.

As always, let your helper aid you with the washing up.

Once the muffins are cooled, warm your extra jam briefly in the microwave and then brush it onto the muffins to glaze.

Enjoy!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street, a culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.  Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  Make sure to go and check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with this week!

Plus learn all you ever need to know about muffins, right here at Muffin 101.

I’m on a touring holiday right now with my mom so if I don’t answer comments right away, please know that I am still delighted when you leave them and will respond as soon as I have internet access again.

Banana Honey Muffins for #MuffinMonday

We are coming up on six months in the desert and it occurred to me that I haven’t really shared that much about life here.   At least not like I feel I did when we were in Cairo.  I guess it is that Dubai is such a modern city that it doesn’t feel that different in many ways, from other places we have lived.   My neighborhood is surrounded by vast desert wasteland with little in the way of plants besides natural scrub.

But, inside the walls of this gated community, we enjoy green lawns and flowering plants in abundance.

The view from my kitchen window.

A different angle of the backyard.

Supermarkets have everything we need, including bacon and cheese, and even some things we just want like fresh flowers, Wilton baking supplies and Jif peanut butter.   I know, I know, some of you are saying that bacon and cheese are “wants” not “needs” but then you must not know me very well yet.  :)  After Cairo with its limited supply of green leafy vegetables, I am working on not getting spoiled by choice and trying to choose fresh foods that haven’t been flown in from the other side of the world with a long carbon footprint to match.

Overwhelmed for choice.

Every item is labeled with the country of its provenance, which is very helpful.

One thing I did get in Egypt and for which I am very grateful, were two bottles of wonderful honey, which were a gift from the Orthodox priests we visited on a charity trip.  I haven’t found anything to match it here yet.   It’s lovely runny stuff, produced by religious bees.  (Just kidding.)  But it does make delicious muffins.   I reminisce with gratitude every time I use it.

Ingredients
Muffins:
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup or 115g sugar
2 large bananas (ripe)
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup or 120ml milk

Topping:
2 tablespoons or 30g butter (softened)
1/4 cup or 25g oats
1 pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons honey

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin tin by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.

Combine your flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

In another small bowl, mashed your ripe bananas with a fork.

Then whisk together your bananas, eggs, canola oil, honey and milk.

In a separate small bowl, mix together your first four topping ingredients until smooth.  Add in the honey and stir well.

Pour your egg/milk mixture into your dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Divide the muffin batter between the muffin cups.

Top each cup of batter with a scoop of the topping and spread it out just a little with your spoon.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  The topping will form a natural slightly crunchy glaze on each muffin.

Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street, a culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.  Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  Make sure to go and check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with this week!

Plus learn all you ever need to know about muffins, right here at Muffin 101.