Tropical Muffins

I'm making an effort to use more whole grains in my cooking - I said making an effort, not switching completely... Looking through this cookbook there were only a few things that caught my eye (partially do to the stupid layout and greater concern for a modern look than a cookbook look) so naturally I chose muffins with a glaze. :)

The author of this book said she uses strong flavors to counterbalance the heavy flavor of wheat flour. I like that b/c I don't love wheat. I don't hate wheat, I just don't love it, even though I grew up eating it.

Some notes about this recipe - if you can only find small limes get more than 4 because you'll need 1/2 cup of juice. I used about 1 Tbsp lime zest from the limes and then froze the rest for a later use.

It calls for whole wheat pastry flour. I used regular whole wheat flour b/c I don't have pastry flour. I believe they'd be lighter with the pastry flour though.

I had some macadamia nuts in the cupboard so that worked for me but I think pecans would also be fine in these.

Tropical Muffins

2 1/4 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C shredded coconut

2 large overripe bananas

1 C brown sugar

4 limes (medium to large)

1 large egg

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/2 C macadamia nuts, chopped

1 C powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with paper liners or spray well.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and coconut. Zest the limes and mix 1 Tbsp of zest in with the dry ingredients.

In a food processor or blender, puree the bananas. Add brown sugar and puree again. Juice the limes to get 1/2 cup of juice. Remove 2 Tbsp of juice and set aside. Add the remaining lime juice to the blender; add egg, and oil and mix well. Stir into dry ingredients then fold in macadamias. Pour into muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

In the meantime, combine the reserved lime juice**, powdered sugar, and vanilla and stir until smooth. When muffins are cool, drizzle with glaze.

**I didn't have enough lime juice so I used 1 Tbsp lime juice and 1 Tbsp water in the glaze which worked great. In fact, I think all that lime juice would have been pretty tart.

From: The New Whole Grains Cookbook by Robin Asbell