Sticky Almond Muffins

 

Sticky Almond Muffins. If you are fond of the flavor and crunch of almonds, then you best prepare yourself to fall in love with this deliciously different almond muffin recipe I am sharing with you today!

This is a recipe I have been carrying around in my Big Blue Binder for many many years now. So long now that I don't exactly remember where it came from. I strongly suspect from a library book.

 

When I was a young woman and bringing up a family of five children, I didn't have a lot of disposable income to spend on things like cookery books.  There was also no such thing as the internet.

I had to rely on word of mouth, old family recipes and the library to find cookbooks and recipes.  I did used to like to buy Family Circle and Women's Day magazine as well. Those recipes I tended to clip out and glue into my binder. 

 

 

Since this recipe is neither clipped nor glued, and it is not attributed to a friend or family member, I can probably guarantee it came from a library book.

Although to be sure I could not begin to tell you which one! Back in those days before the advent of computers or even home typewriters, I used to take out cookbooks from the local library of wherever I was living.

 

I would then laboriously copy out the recipes from the book that I liked, all by long hand.  Hundreds of them. My handwriting was fairly neat in those days.  I can no longer say that.

I think I have gotten rather lazy after 20 or so odd years of mostly typing rather than hand writing. I have a rather messy scrawl these days. My fingers cannot keep up with my brain, and they try to! The end result is not very pretty!

 

This is a muffin baker I bought myself a few months back. I simply fell in love with it. It is ceramic with a pearlized finish. I thought it quite pretty, the patterns on it mimicking the old fashioned metal muffin tins our grandmother's might have had to bake with.

It only bakes six muffins. I thought it highly unlikely that I would ever be, on my lonesome, baking any more than six muffins at a time, so thought it would be just right.  And it is.

 

They say you should only have in your home things which you love, that you find useful, and that bring you joy. That is my mantra for the rest of my life.

And this muffin baker brings me joy.  And so do these muffins.  No small wonder.

I love muffins and I love almonds. They are one of my favorite nuts, and I love baking with them.  I quite simply adore their crunch and their flavor.

These muffins are very much like an upside down cake, except there is no fruit involved. Only nuts.

 

You begin by buttering your muffin pan really well. This is important as you won't be able to use papers for these muffins and the sugar/almond mixture might stick to the pans.

You put a couple teaspoons of flaked almonds into the bottom of each muffin cup. You could also use slivered almonds. Just don't use ground. 

 

On top of this goes some soft light brown sugar. Not a lot, just one teaspoon per muffin cup. And then onto that you drizzle a bit of melted butter.

See, kind of like an upside down cake so far.  But no fruit.

 

The batter is a really simple one. Flour, baking powder, salt, soda  . . .  these get sifted together.

Then you beat an egg together with the remaining melted butter, some buttermilk and both almond and vanilla extracts.

 

Lets talk about extracts for a minute. I always use pure extracts.  I know they cost a bit more than artificial flavorings, but as a well seasoned baker I can attest that they are worth every penny for the flavor that they impart to baked goods.

I don't want to be eating anything artificial.  I want to be eating and baking with pure ingredients.  Natural ingredients.  Not only are they better for you, but they do taste better.

 

You get what you pay for and the cost of using pure extract is really well worth it in the long run.  Trust me on this.  Quite often the flavors are much more intense and pure and you end up having to use less.

Having to use more of something that is cheaper is just a false economy in my opinion.

 

The batter for these uses buttermilk.  Buttermilk imparts a lovely moistness to any baked good you add it to.  I love using buttermilk in my baking.

Believe it or not, it was not always easy to find buttermilk in the UK. If you could find it at all, it was only in very small containers.  More often than not I was reduced to using buttermilk substitutes.

 

A common way to make a buttermilk substitute is to add an acidic substance, typically lemon juice, vinegar, or cream of tartar, to milk. Alternately, you can use plain yogurt, sour cream, kefir, or buttermilk powder as a substitute.

Bear in mind however, that whilst a substitute will work fine and give you good results, a substitute is only ever going to be a substitute for the real thing.  And you really can't beat the real thing.

 

Another thing to remember when you are baking muffins is to not overmix the batters.  Making muffins usually involves mixing together all of your dry ingredients and all of your wet ingredients separately.

You them have to stir the wet into the dry to mix them both together, but you do want to use a really light hand. You need only mix them to combine.  Lumps are okay, maybe even a few dry streaks.  

 

It is this light hand which gives you a really nice muffin with a beautiful  texture. Muffins tend to be a bit denser than cupcakes, but that's okay.

When you want a muffin, you want a muffin. Not a tiny cake. Or is that just me???

In any case these are beautiful muffins, meant to be enjoyed upside down.  With a lovely almond praline topping and a moist and tender crumb.

Meant to be enjoyed warm with a hot drink in the morning.  These are quite simply beautiful to behold and to eat.  I do hope you will be inspired to want to bake them.  Feel free to double the ingredients if you would like 12 rather than six.

Sticky Almond Muffins

Yield: Makes 6

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 35 Min

Delicious upside down muffins with a sticky sweet nutty almond and brown sugar base. A small batch recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (45g) flaked almonds, toasted
• 1/4 cup (50g) soft light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (65g) butter melted
• 1 cup (140g) plain, all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large free range egg
• 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp pour almond extract

Instructions

1. To toast your almonds, spread them out onto a baking tray and toast them in a 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4 oven for 10 minutes.  Allow to cool before proceeding.
2. To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5.  Butter a six cup muffin tin really well.
3. Put two teaspoons of the flaked almonds into each muffin cup. Sprinkle 1 tsp of the brown sugar over top of the almonds. Drizzle each with 2 tsp of the melted butter.  Set aside.
4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and soda.  Stir in the brown sugar.
5. Whisk together the remaining butter, egg, buttermilk and both extracts. Add all at once to the dry ingredients, stirring together just to combine.
6. Divide the batter between the muffin cups, spooning it over top of the nut mixture.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for  20 to 25 minutes, until risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Let stand for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.  If any nuts fall off, carefully spoon them back on top. 
9. Serve warm.

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