Kiwi Muffins

The kiwi is definitely an underutilized fruit.  I mean, who doesn’t love them?  Sweet and juicy with those fantastic little seeds.  Sadly, they seem to always be paired with strawberries, and even then, you’d be hard pressed to find them outside of a smoothie.  Well the kiwi is taking a back seat no more.  In these muffins, the kiwi is the star of the show. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 3 kiwis
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 lime
• ¼ cup powdered sugar

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350° before getting started.  I think the easiest way to peel a kiwi is to just cut the ends off, stand it up, and remove strips all the way around. 

Then just slice them and drop them into a mixing bowl.  All of the ingredients are going to eventually end up in this bowl, so make sure it’s large enough. 

Using a fork (or a potato masher if you prefer) smoosh all of the slices.  Could you skip the slicing step?  Sure.  But in my hands, that’s just asking for a kiwi on the floor.  Slices cooperate much better when being smashed. 

After a bit you should have something that looks like this:

For the people who want a measurement, I ended up with about ¾ cup of kiwi mush.

To this, add the sugar.  (If you wanted to make kiwi lime muffins, this would be a perfect place for lime sugar.)

Stir those together. 

For the wet ingredients, the easiest thing to do is measure ¼ cup buttermilk, pour in oil until it reaches the ½ cup mark, crack in the egg, and add the vanilla. 

Whisk that together and pour it into the kiwi mixture. 

Stir until that comes together. 

Sprinkle the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt over the top. 

Mix the dry ingredients together a bit, and then stir them into the wet.  Don’t over mix.  Muffins like a gentle hand, so stir until it just comes together. 

I always use parchment liners, but if you prefer to grease the pan and have to wash it afterward, that is your prerogative.  Either way, fill the cups until they’re about ¼ inch from the top. 

Pop the pans into the oven, then turn the temperature up to 425° for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, turn it back down to 350° and bake for an additional 12 – 14 minutes.  When they’re done, they’ll be starting to brown on top and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Also, a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. 

Give them only 3 or 4 minutes in the pan before removing them to a cooling rack.  Steam trapped in the pan isn’t good for the texture of muffins.  Then, if you can force yourself away from them (omg they smell good) allow them to cool for 10 – 15 minutes.  Then it’s time for glaze.  Squeeze the juice of half a lime into a bowl.  (I got about 1 ½ tablespoons)  Sift in ¼ cup of powdered sugar. 

Stir until it’s smooth.  Dip the top of each muffin into the glaze, then tip it and allow the excess to drip off.  You'll still probably have some glaze drip down the sides, so you'll want to place the cooling rack on top of a sheet pan or something.   

Now, I know you’re thinking glaze on muffins?  Won’t that make them too sweet?  In this case, the answer is no.  In fact, this glaze serves the opposite purpose.  It brings a nice tang to the muffins.  It also gives them a lovely finish on top.  See how pretty?

If you can wait, allow the glaze to dry.  If you just have to scarf one now, go ahead, I won’t judge you. 

What do you like to do with kiwis?

BTW, I thought you might find it entertaining to know that I always put on my geeky headphones and totally jam out while writing these posts.  It's the secret to my literary genius.  This particular episode was brought to you by Gangnam Style.  Because... why not, right?   

Simply Luscious Lime Sugar

So I know you’re asking yourself, “What in the world am I going to do with lime sugar?”  Well, not only will I be posting a recipe that calls for it soon, but once you’ve made it, you’ll be asking yourself, “Why have I never had lime sugar?”  It’s super simple, and amazingly delicious.  Not to mention it’s like an air freshener in a jar.  I should note that although I haven’t tried them yet, I’m sure orange, lemon, or even grapefruit would be just as fabulous. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 3 cups sugar
• 2 Tablespoons lime zest

Go ahead and zest your limes.  Obviously, the amount of zest you’re going to get from each one depends on what size the limes are.  Mine were fairly small, and I got about 1 Tablespoon per lime.  A really fine microplane works great for this because you want really tiny pieces. 

When you remove the zest, be sure to only take the colored part.  The white stuff is bitter. 

 

Put your sugar and zest into some kind of jar or container with a tight fitting lid. 

Put the lid on, and shake the dickens out of it.  Seriously, think of it like a shake weight and work your arms out for a full minute or two.  Not only do you want everything evenly distributed, but the sugar beats the oil out of the zest releasing all that lime goodness. 

Now just take the lid off and inhale.  It has to be one of the most amazing scents I’ve ever smelled.  After making fabulousness for which I made the lime sugar (and I made it with Elise Logan, so you know it was seriously good) I went on to find other uses for this amazing new creation.  I put some in my ice tea with mint, and I even sprinkled some on toast as you would with cinnamon sugar.  As good as Seeley’s cinnamon toast looked, I’m going to say it’s got nothing on lime sugar toast.