recipe: mango macadamia crunch muffins.

i am going to attempt to give you the recipe for this, but to tell you the truth, i was distracted by someone's repeated attempts at singing "i will always love you" in another, faraway backyard. apparently, not far enough. the muffin recipe itself is based on a jill dupleix recipe, so that's sound--i'm unsure as to how much fruit i added, though, and i completely screwed up the originally intended streusel topping by adding far too much brown sugar, which literally caramelized the macadamias (not a bad thing, really).



i baked these in paper cups which is why they are so tall, but i forgot to grease the cups beforehand, so that's why they are so pale. if you decide to try this, remember to use unwaxed paper cups, or the cups will burn. i could only find 8oz. unwaxed coffee cups, which put it in the jumbo muffin category, but 6oz ones would be preferrable--either way, expect lower yield and longer cooking times.



mango macadamia crunch muffins

for the muffin:
75g/3oz melted butter
250g/9oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp vanilla extract
115g/4oz brown sugar (i used asian brown sugar, which is unrefined sugar, unlike american brown sugar, which is usually refined white sugar with molasses added in; use whatever you have available)
2 large eggs
125ml/4fl oz buttermilk
the fruit from two large super-ripe mango(e)s, (carabao or manila if you can find them), or any stone fruit, really--roughly chopped

for the topping:
1 cup chopped, toasted macadamias
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar

preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. sift dry ingredients (except sugar) together in a large bowl. add sugar and stir. beat together the eggs, vanilla extract, melted butter and buttermilk in another bowl. make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the egg mixture, stirring through with a fork until it is a lumpy paste. don't overmix. fold in the fruit.

mix the topping ingredients together.

grease the muffin pan or the interior of the paper cups and spoon in the mixture until 3/4ths full. top with a generous dollop of the macadamia sugar mix.

if you are using the paper cups, place them in a shallow baking pan, about ½-1 inch apart (you may need to rotate the pan halfway through baking). bake for 20-25 minutes if in a regular muffin pan, 25-35 for the ones in paper cups, or until the centers cook through. cool on a wire rack.