A blast from the Past

Last weekend we were invited to friends for brunch. When I asked what to bring, they said muffins. I decided to make a lime version of lemon and poppyseed muffins as a kind friend gave me some limes which was a real treat!

Lemon and poppyseed muffins always remind me of the late 1990s and the whole blue and yellow theme for interiors which was popular at the time. In 1999 my husband to be and I moved into our first home, which was a very small apartment, but it was brand new and we were able to pick the colour scheme, which was a blue and yellow one. We had yellow painted walls, blue carpet and a blue kitchen with a very trendy (at the time) navy benchtop. We also got engaged that year, and many of our engagement presents were in the blue and yellow theme – lots of blue temuka pottery with a yellow trim. In my kitchen I would always have pile of lemons “artfully” displayed on one of my blue platters with the yellow trim – and lemon and poppyseed muffins were a firm favourite for using up the lemons.

The muffins haven’t lost their appeal nearly ten years later. Lime works just as well as lemons – the sourness makes a great contrast for the butteriness of the muffins. These are one muffin that substituting the butter for oil doesn’t give you such a good result –you need the butter to give a crunchy exterior and it really does add to the flavour.

Lime Poppyseed muffins

2 c self raising flour
¾ c sugar
Zest of two limes
2 tbsp poppyseeds
1c milk
75g butter, melted
1 egg

• Combine dry ingredients, then separately combine the milk, butter and egg
• Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix gently
• Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 200c for 15-18 minutes or until cooked through
• While still hot spoon over a syrup made by mixing ¼ c sugar with ¼ c lime juice

Love em or hate em

It is tamarillo season in New Zealand. I have never really eaten afresh tamarillos – when I buy them I use them to make tamarillo relish which is one of my favourites. But a couple of weeks ago we has friends over for dinner and I tried out a recipe from Dish magazine which was chocolate puddings with melting centres and tamarillos poached in a mint syrup. We had them with vanilla bean ice cream. I absolutely loved the chocolate pudding which was one of the nicest I have made, but the tamarillos were yuck – way too sour for me and they didn’t seem to taste of anything even after being poached in the sweet syrup. Our guests loved the tamarillos, but neither my husband nor I ate them. I was going to post about the puddings, but my photo was taken in a rush and was blurry and did not do the puddings justice (I had only made enough for the 6 of us to eat and I am still at that slightly embarrassed stage that I am photographing food before we eat it!).

I still had 5 tamarillos in the fruit bowl and I hate to waste things so I thought I would make my husband some tamarillo muffins – even though he doesn’t like tamarillos I thought that the muffin might disguise any overwhelming tamarillo taste. I based my muffins on a recipe in Allyson Gofton’s new book, Bake, substituting some of the white flour for wholemeal and using rice bran oil instead of butter. The muffins have lovely texture and look great, but unfortunately I couldn’t fool my husband and he doesn’t really like them. So tonight, I will be making his favourite – banana bran muffins with dried apricots. I have still included the tamarillo muffin below for those of you who love tamarillos. You could substitute the tamarillos for other fruit like diced mango, peaches, apricots, blueberries etc.

Tamarillo and Cinnamon Muffins (adapted from Allyson Gofton, Bake)

4 tamarillos, blanched, peeled and diced
1/2 c flour
1 c wholemeal flour
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ c yoghurt
1 egg
1/3 c milk
¼ c rice bran oil

• Combine dry ingredients
• Whisk together yoghurt, egg, milk and oil
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in wet ingredients and tamarillos, mix gently – do not over mix, it’s ok if there are still bits of flour in the mixture
• Spoon into greased or lined muffin tins and bake at 200c (not fanbake) for 16-18 minutes