Pina Colada (Pineapple + Coconut) Muffins

I love to bake. But half the time, my baking fails. I remember one of the first few times I baked banana muffins in my Gage residence (two years ago), they turned out pretty good.. But my bad habit of not keeping a proper recipe book resulted in the loss of the recipe forever. Hence, in recent months, my banana bread/banana muffins have always turned out too dense or greasy and I haven't been able to make any good muffins in a long time. So this time, I must document the recipe AND pictures AND my notes properly in this blog!

Today, I tried to bake them again (after having failed for the past few weeks). I bought some bananas yesterday, but strangely enough, to come home only to find them missing!!! The phrases "lost your marbles" and "gone bananas" combine to become "lost your bananas" which brings it to a literal level in this case!

Without bananas, I decided to do something with that stash of pineapple in my fridge (bought too much for making pineapple tarts). Google returned all sorts of results for pineapple pudding, pineapple biscotti, pineapple upside-down cake and pineapple muffins.

I finally decided on pineapple muffins because this recipe sounded really good.. Pineapple and coconut, such a tropical feel! Just what I need for a gloomy rainy Sunday afternoon...



They turned out AMAZING! Not too dense, rather fluffy on the inside and will you look at that golden colour from the pineapples! The house smelled absolutely tropical with all that pineapple and coconut flavour, definitely took away some of that rainy gloom!

Coconut Pineapple Muffins (recipe from here)

• 2 cups flour, sifted with 1 tablespoon baking powder (did not sift, muffins could have turned out better if I did)


• ½ cup desiccated coconut


• ½ cup caster sugar (I used regular sugar and reduced to just under half a cup)


• 1 egg


• ¼ cup melted butter (which equalled to half a block of margarine)


• 1/3 cup milk (or use the drained juice from the crushed pineapple)


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1x225 gram can crushed pineapple,drained (I used 200g of fresh pineapple, drained)


• ½ cup slivered almonds (I left this out because I did not have any at home)

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl add the flour, coconut and sugar. Stir to mix.



2. Since I used fresh pineapple, I had to manually crush them. I found this easy by just mushing up the pineapple cubes with my fingers, or you could also use a grater. Oops, picture is too bright and out of focus.



3. In a small bowl, place the egg, butter milk (or pineapple juice) and vanilla - whisk lightly to incorporate, then stir in the drained crushed pineapple. I used the pineapple juice because I was too lazy to walk to the store to get milk because I didn't want to waste the juice.



4. Stir this into the dry ingredients until only just combined.



Before mixing



After mixing

5. Spoon the batter into prepared muffin pans and sprinkle over with slivered almonds. No almonds for me.



6. Cook in a preheated 180°C oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. I baked it at 350°F and it took WAY more than 20 minutes for my muffins.



After 20 minutes, they were nowhere near done. After 30 minutes, the tops were slowly beginning to brown. After 35 minutes, I stuck a wooden chopstick in and it came out gooey. After 40 minutes, the tops were crusting up and drying out, so I took them out.



Lovely golden brown muffin babies! I think the vanilla essence really contributed to the flavour and aroma. My heart sang as I took in the warm, fragrance of sweet pineapple and coconut.



Here's a close up! I love the rubble-looking texture. I may have left them in the oven for a little too long (because I was afraid the insides were not fully cooked), and they may have turned out a little dry. I will try harder next time!



I tried one after dinner and they were already cool. There was a gooey texture while chewing, perhaps because of the mushy pineapple, but the taste was great! The muffin itself looked really fluffy but taste a little dry. I also tried it microwaved for 10 seconds and it tasted a lot better, but still gooey.

This is a FAR improvement from my failed banana muffins! I will work hard to find the perfect banana muffin recipe and share it with you guys when I succeed! But for now, this recipe's a keeper! I still have loads of pineapples waiting in the freezer :) I'm calling this the Pina Colada muffins, with the pineapple and coconut in there.. I'm sure you can make them truly Pina Colada-y if you add some rum in there!

♥ Nikki