double coconut muffins

I LOVE LOVE LOVE coconut. Not so much artificially flavored coconut, but real coconut is one of my all time favorite flavors! These double coconut muffins are absolutely amazing! Not too sweet, so moist and with a delicious toasted coconut topping. I could eat them for breakfast, second breakfast, lunch and dinner, oh, and probably dessert too! This recipe comes from one of my very favorite food blogs. In fact, I think Smitten Kitchen is the first blog I had ever read. I get some of my favorite recipes from her site, if you’ve never visited you should check it out.She also recommended using parchment paper squares in lieu of muffin cup liners. I tried it and I may never regular liners again! Just cut 5″ x 5″ squares of parchment paper, crease the paper around the outside of each cup and fill with batter. The parchment paper peels away so easily, much less messy than the regular liners. And I love the way they look – like they came from a bakery! If you do choose to go the parchment paper route I would recommend piping the batter into the cups. It helps avoid the messy frustration of bits of burnt muffin all over the corners of the paper.Double Coconut Muffins
recipe via Smitten Kitchen
Again, if you have never visited Deb’s blog you should definitely check it out! 

1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup greek yogurt
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 sweetened shredded coconut

*It helps if the yogurt and egg are at room temperature to maintain a batter-like consistency. If they are cold, the muffins will still turn out, the coconut oil will get firm up and make the batter hard to mix

Preheat oven to 375. Warm coconut oil until just melted either on the stove or in the microwave – it will liquify quickly. Mix together flours, baking powder, salt and 1/2 cup of shredded coconut. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, sugar, melted coconut oil, yogurt and vanilla. Mix into dry ingredients until combined. Fill muffin cups, sprinkle reserved shredded coconut and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. Begin checking after 15 minutes, muffins are done when a tester comes out clean. Transfer to a rack to cool.

This is another great recipe to keep in the fridge in a ziploc as described in my poppyseed muffin post. 

poppyseed muffins

When I visited my cousin a while ago she made these amazing poppyseed muffins. They were so delicious, not too sweet, perfectly moist and they even look fancy with their sugary topping. I tried my hand at making them for my moms group last week and I will say, they were good but not nearly as good as my cousin made them. The recipe is the same, the only difference is, I have turned into a horrible baker since I’ve become a mom! No matter how hard I try to pay extra attention I either forget an ingredient or I forget to set a timer for the oven. I used to be so attentive! All that to say, this really is an amazing muffin recipe and as long as you pay more attention to your baked goods than I seem to, you will not be disappointed. Poppyseed Muffins

Ingredients

1/2 c softened butter
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
3/4 c milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/13 flour
2 1/2 tsp poppyseeds

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time along with vanilla and almond. In a separate bowl combine salt, baking powder and flour. Alternate adding dry ingredients a milk to butter/sugar mixture starting with flour. Mix until just combined and add poppy seeds. Using either a greased muffin pan or cupcake liners, fill muffin cups with batter about 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 15 – 18 minutes until a tester comes out clean. (these guys are tricky, the batter is so light in color that they tend to look underdone but a tester will give a good indicator of doneness) Makes about 12 cupcakes.

I also learned after making these muffins that they really are best right out of the oven. However, I find that to be a bit difficult since I think muffins are most satisfying in the morning. I don’t know about you but I don’t have time in the morning to whip up a batch of muffins. So here’s what I’ve come up with to still get that fresh-out-of-the-oven muffin without having to wake up too early. I make the batter the night before and store it in a ziploc bag in the fridge over night. When you wake, up pull the bag out of the fridge and let the batter come to room temperature. When you’re ready to bake the muffins just snip a corner off of the bag and fill your muffin cups and pop them in the oven. Quick and easy, fresh out of the oven muffins with almost no extra work in the morning!

For the pretty sugar topping melt a tablespoon of butter in a bowl just big enough one muffin, fill a separate bowl with white sugar. Quickly dunk the muffin into the melted butter and then roll in sugar. See how pretty?