Muffin Monday (Wednesday? Sunday?)

When I saw this event on Elena Ho's experiments blog, I knew I had to join in. Muffins are a big deal around here, mostly because they are the only snack food Ryan deems worthy to take to work. Biscuits and cookies just aren't filling enough. I showed Elena's post to Ryan, precipitating a huge storm of activity in the kitchen on Sunday afternoon. The results follow:

Pineapple Coconut Muffins
This was my contribution, working from a tried and true base recipe. These muffins were mostly of the bready, breakfast variety rather than something decadent and cake-like. They could have benefited from more sugar, but I thought the syrup from the pineapple was going to be sweet enough.


1 Cup plain self-raising flour
1 Cup Wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 Cup dessicated coconut
2 Tablespoons raw sugar
1/2 Cup skim milk
1/2 Cup juice from tinned pineapple
1 egg
1/3 Cup vegetable oil
1 Cup tinned pineapple chunks

1. Preheat oven to 180 Degrees Celsius. Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray.
2. Mix flour, coconut and sugar in a large bowl. (I'm usually too lazy to sift)
3. In another bowl mix egg, oil, milk and juice.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the flour and mix as lightly and quickly as possible. Stir in the pineapple chunks as well.
5. Spoon mixture into muffin tins, and cook until golden and cooked through (around 20 minutes). Allow to cool in the tins before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Ryan's Cappucino Date Muffins
2 Cups flour
1/2 brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Cup strong percolated organic coffee
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup milk
1/2 Cup melted butter
1 egg beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 Cup diced dates

1. Grease muffin cups and preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk together milk, coffee, butter, egg and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Scoop batter into muffin cups, and bake for 20 minutes.

We couldn't decide whose muffins were better - they were just too different. Ryan's tasted nice and caramelised from the dates, but could have done with a stronger coffee flavour. Mine were ok, but needed more sugar. I'm sure the experimenting will continue next weekend, with all the inspiration from the Muffin Monday round up so far!