Double Nutella Swirl Muffins for Muffin Monday

I was first introduced to a type of Nutella, that delightful spread made from hazelnuts and cocoa when I was a small child, living in Caracas, Venezuela.  There it is called Nucita since the Spanish word for nuts is nueces and it isn’t actually made by the Nutella company but by a Venezuelan enterprise.  Unfortunately, after one year there, my parents divorced and I moved back to the United States with my mother and two sisters.  So the hazelnut paste romance was short-lived.  According to the Nutella website, the real deal didn’t arrive in the US until 1984, and then, only in the northeastern states.  (As for my old friend, Nucita, I’ve never seen it in the States, although it’s possible that some stores in Florida might carry it, since there is a large population of Venezuelans living there.)   As I grew older, I would run across Nutella occasionally while overseas but as my preferred tastes changed from sweet to savory, I never regained the lost love.  My daughters are a different matter.  I have been buying Nutella for them since they were young and they like to eat it with a spoon.  Never mind the original toast it was meant to be eaten on.   Last year, for World Nutella Day, I sent them each two jars through Amazon.com.  Because some holidays are well worth celebrating.  Put it on your calendar now, folks!

Before writing this post I did a little research about this much loved spread and discovered that the original recipe was created by pastry maker Pietro Ferrero using hazelnuts because chocolate was in such short supply due to World War II rationing.  Hazelnuts, on the other hand, were plentiful in his native land, the Piedmont region of northern Italy.  I must confess that I was probably in my twenties before I figured out that Nutella wasn’t made from just chocolate, despite its name.  Call me slow but I just never thought about it.  [bows head in shame]

Anyway, back to Muffin Monday where we are making Nutella-filled and Nutella-topped Muffins!  You can find the original recipe here, which called only for Nutella topping but you know I am always looking for ways to raise the bar.

Ingredients

3/4 cup or 170g sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups + 2 teaspoons or 190g all purpose flour

2 tsp baking power

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup or 60ml vegetable oil

3/4 cup or 180ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

About 1/3 cup or 100g Nutella for filling

About 1/3 cup or 100g Nutella for topping

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or line it with baking cups. 

Measure your first 1/3 cup or 100g of Nutella into a small bowl and place it in the ice tray of your freezer.  We just want it to stiffen up a little bit.  If you live in a cold climate, this step may not be necessary but here in Egypt in the summer, my Nutella is pretty runny.

In a large bowl, mix all of your dry ingredients together: sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: egg, oil, milk and vanilla extract.

Add the wet stuff to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Fill each muffin cup about two tablespoons of batter.  I use a cookie dough scoop for this because it is more accurate and so easy.  Also, it reminds me of the friend that bought it for me here. 

Divide your Nutella from the freezer between the muffin cups and then top with the remainder of the batter.

See, nice and firm, so it doesn't run all over the batter.

Add a dollop of the other 1/3 cup or 100g of Nutella to each muffin cup and swirl it around a few times in the batter with a toothpick or a pointy knife.  I always have a supply of satay sticks on hand so I used one of those.  If you are in a cold climate, you can give it quick zap in the microwave to get it moving.  Definitely not my problem here. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes.  You can't poke these with a toothpick to see if they are done because you just end up with a toothpick full of Nutella so look for light golden brown around the edges. 

Remove the muffins from the muffin tin and let them cool a little bit on a wire rack before serving.   These go great with a glass of ice cold milk.

Enjoy!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street.   A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

Need more muffin recipes?

Banana Bacon Peanut Butter Chip Muffins 

Honey Date Pine Nut Muffins 
Quick Bread Breakfast Muffins

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins
Strawberry Shortcake Muffins

Crispy Polenta

Crispy polenta is crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. Perfect on its own or served with topping like grilled eggplant or wilted greens. 

Everybody likes plain things.  Well, so says my younger daughter.  The other day I made some lovely cheesy polenta from this recipe here.  If you haven’t read the delightful Katherine from Eggton,  go a have look right now.  Her dishes always look delicious, she makes me laugh and she has the cutest dogs on the internet, well, right behind my own helper.

Dear husband and I declared the polenta delicious (I served it with a fresh garlicky tomato sauce and grilled eggplant.) but younger daughter thought the cheese was too cheesy.  I think we all know how I feel about cheese.   Growing up in Brazil, she was used to the small squares of polenta that were deep-fried and part of every churrascaria menu.  So just a couple of days later, I obliged, making my own version which still comes out crispy, but is pan-fried with a little olive oil, making it much healthier.  It met with approval.

Ingredients

1 cup or 170g polenta

1 vegetable (or chicken) stock cube

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I used truffle salt I brought back from a trip to Italy but you couldn’t taste the tiny flecks of truffle at all so normal sea salt would be just fine.)

2 generous tablespoons butter

Olive oil for pan-frying

Method

Find yourself a heat proof cylindrical vessel that will hold at least 2 1/2 cups or 600ml by volume.  Slide in a small bag like you get in the grocery store for vegetables or one of those bags on a roll that still use twist ties.  

Put three cups or 720ml of water into a large pot or saucepan.  Add in the stock cube and the salt.  Bring the water to a gentle boil and then add in the cup of polenta slowly, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming.

I started to stir quickly after taking this photo. Couldn't snap and stir and pour at the same time.  I need three hands!

Keep stirring and cooking over a low fire until the polenta grains are completely soft, the water has been absorbed and the mixture gets fairly firm but you can still stir it.  Remember that it will firm up even more as it cools. 

Add in the butter and give it a few more good stirs.  

Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes (because you don’t want to melt your plastic bag) and then carefully spoon the polenta into the plastic-bag-lined cylindrical container.  Fold the top of the bag over so the polenta on the end doesn’t dry out and to smooth the end out.

It's fairly flat on top, you just can't tell. I secured the bag down with a rubberband but forgot to take that photo. 

Allow to cool until stiff and then remove the bag of polenta from the container.  It will finish cooling faster with the just the bag around it.

When the polenta is completely cooled, slice it into circles about 1/3 inch or just under one centimeter thick.

You can cut that rough end off and just eat it. I did. 

I got 13 slices out of my cylinder.

Drizzle a little olive oil in a non-stick skillet and fry the polenta circles until crispy on both sides.  Add a little more olive oil as you turn them over the first time. 

As they cooked a little and shrunk up, I was able to slip in that last one that didn't fit initially in the pan.

Just keep flipping them over until they are nicely browned on both side.

Word of warning:  I fried up store bought polenta (you know, the kind that comes in the tube) just like this back in July, as part of a meal out at my sister’s lake house.  I made the mistake of leaving the crispy polenta visible and by the time we got around to eating, the tasty slices of pan-fried corn goodness were all gone.  Scarfed up - with my three young nephews among the guilty parties.  So I can attest to their appeal to children.  Hide the polenta until you are ready to serve.

I don’t know about you but I am always looking for a way to vary the starches I serve.  I get tired of potatoes/rice/pasta with the occasional couscous.  This polenta is a great addition to any meal.  I served these topped with smothered pork chops, but, as I said, they are also great plain.  And, you can be sure, that is just how younger daughter ate hers.

Enjoy! 

Honey Date Pine Nut Muffins #MuffinMonday

Honey Date Pine Nut Muffins are beautiful, with the most tender crumb inside and a lovely sticky muffin tops, even before the extra honey.

One of the best parts of living all over the world is being able to learn about and experience not only traditions and practices of other cultures and religions, but also to be introduced to the special foods that are an integral part of those traditions.  As I sat down to write this post, I started counting up the many countries I’ve lived in and, out of the 13, five have them have been Muslim majority nations.  So, while I am no expert in any way, I have come to know a little bit about their celebrations over the years. 

This ninth month on the Islamic calendar is the month of Ramadan during which Muslims observe a complete fast from food or drink (and other carnal activities like smoking or sexual intercourse) from sunrise to sunset.   The act of fasting is supposed to help the person focus on the spiritual, rather than the worldly things, and teach self-sacrifice and empathy for others.  While traditional dishes vary from country to country, one thing seems standard.  The fast is broken first by eating three dates and perhaps some water.  There is often yogurt or a yogurt drink to follow.  And then the feast, called iftar in this part of the world, truly begins and continues on into the night!

When I received the email with this week’s Muffin Monday recipe, I was delighted by the two main ingredients, pine nuts and honey because they are everywhere in the shops right now. Ramadan markets have sprung up all over with fruits and nuts and all manner of sweet treats. 

I knew these muffins would be perfect to send home with my lovely lady who helps me around the house a few days a week.  She is the sweetest person and we adore her.  Especially the Boxer dog, who greets her effusively every time she comes.  Bless her, she loves him back!  I decided to add chopped dates and ground pine nuts, and replace half of the milk with yogurt in the batter, in order to make these delightful muffins even more iftar friendly.  If that’s a thing.   I also added more sugar because folks here like things sweet.  

Honey Date Pine Nut Muffins

Perfect for Ramadan or anytime you need a treat that is not super sweet, these muffins go well with a cup of coffee or hot tea. This recipe has been adapted from this post at Caffeiiina which came originally from this recipe at Taste of Home.  

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups or 190g flour

1/2 cup or 60g pine nuts (plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling before baking)

3/4 cup or 170g sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 cup or 120ml milk

Scant 1/2 cup or 110g yogurt

1/4 cup or 60g butter, melted

1/4 cup or 60ml honey plus extra for drizzling on baked muffins

4 1/2 oz or 125g unpitted dates (I used 11 dates, if you are counting.)

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Grease or line your muffin tin with paper cups.

Grind your pine nuts in a food processor or blender.  Either way, you may have to keep shaking the machine so the grinding nuts fall back towards the blades.  They tend to blow up against the sides and out of the reach of the blades.  Grind them as finely as you can without making pine nut butter.

The ground pine nuts clump together but, not to worry!
We will mash the clumps when we mix this with the flour and sugar.

Using a sharp knife, cut the seeds out of the dates.  Chop them up into little pieces.  They stick together (and don’t bother trying to make them not, because you can’t and it doesn’t matter) so it’s hard to see how small they are getting but just keep after it for a few minutes until you feel the pieces are as small or smaller than, say, raisins.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, ground pine nuts, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Use a spoon to mash out all the soft pine nut lumps that are clinging together.

In a small bowl, beat together the egg, milk, yogurt, melted butter and honey.  

Add in the chopped dates to the liquid bowl.  Use your whisk to break up the sticky dates into their individual pieces.  

Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold gently until just mixed through. 

Spoon into your prepared muffin tin and sprinkle the top of the batter with the extra pine nuts.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Remove from the pan and let them cool on a wire rack.

Once they have cooled for a few minutes but are still slightly warm, drizzle lightly with some honey.

And to all my Muslim friends, Ramadan Kareem!  Enjoy!