Piña Colada Muffins #MuffinMonday

A quick question for you, as I pack my bags to fly back to the US (BECAUSE MY FIRST BABY GIRL IS GRADUATING FROM UNIVERSITY!) for reasons that don't seem possible, given that I only feel about 24 myself.  Have you ever cooked or baked with coconut oil? This is my first time and I have to admit it reminds me of beaches and Hawaiian Tropic suntanning oil.  But in a good way.  Combining it with pineapple in these muffins, I am back on my honeymoon in Barbados, sipping piña coladas.  While the health-professional jury is still out, it seems that coconut oil does have some benefits.  All I can tell you is that it was a great way to add coconut flavor to my muffins, without actually adding more fat in the form of grated coconut, in addition to the usual canola or butter.  Which makes me think it might be a good addition to curries as well, instead of coconut milk.  What do you think?  Coconut oil, yay or nay?

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
1/2 cup or 115g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml coconut oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml pineapple syrup (from canned pineapple)
About 3/4 cup or 140g canned pineapple, drained weight

1/8-1/4 cup or 10-20g sweetened flaked coconut for decoration (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by greasing or lining with paper muffin cups.

Drain your small can of pineapple and reserve the syrup.  Chop the pineapple up with a big knife.  Or a small knife.  I’m flexible.

Set aside a small pile of pineapple for adding to the muffin tops before baking.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.

In another bowl, whisk together milk, coconut oil, pineapple syrup, vanilla and eggs.

That's the coconut oil.  I don't know what I expected it to look like since bottle
was not see-through but the white surprised me. 

Add all the milk mixture to the flour mixture.

Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Then fold in your small pile of pineapple bits.

Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

Top each cup of batter with a few pieces of the reserved pineapple and sprinkle with a few coconut flakes, if using.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing muffins from tin.  Cool further on a wire rack.

Enjoy!