Pineapple Macadamia Nut Muffins with Coconut Streusel

Pineapple Macadamia Nut Muffin with Coconut Streusel

Description
Is it possible to have a dessert or anytime-treat that is crunchy but soft, chewy but melts in your mouth, sweet but tangy? Thinking about this muffin is like thinking about people. We all want to put everything in a box, label it, and seal it up. Defining something or someone allows us to feel that we have control over it. But people, like muffins, are complex, a lot deeper than our pigeon holing would suggest.

So when you eat these muffins, and you will if you're smart, think about how the diversity and multiplicity of taste sensations makes you want to eat all of them immediately. (Note that our model muffin met someone's teeth--we're not telling whose--before it could be photographed.) Then think about the complexity of your friends and how the many aspects of their personalities make them more interesting than someone who is one dimensional. When the British want to compliment someone for being reliable and solid, they tell that person, "You're a brick." Now Americans can add a saying to describe someone who is sweet but adds spice to the conversation, reliably good but a little surprising. We can tell them, "You're a muffin."

Well, okay, maybe not. The real purpose of these muffins is to produce a test of character. That is, when you make these, are you willing to share them, or will you keep them all for yourself? Our suggestion is to share them. You will rise in the esteem of those you share with, you'll enjoy the feeling of giving and sharing (as well as the compliment about your baking skill), and you can always make more.

Recipe

Muffins:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter
3/4 cup golden brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped pineapple - drained well (I used a fresh pineapple, you may substitute canned pineapple - chopped and drained well)
1/3 cup chopped dried pineapple
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts, or walnuts

Coconut Streusel Topping:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut
3 tablespoons golden brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 5-6 cup jumbo muffin tin or 10-12 cup (for smaller muffins). This recipe makes 5 jumbo muffins, or 10-12 small muffins.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together (or you may use a mixer) the eggs, sour cream, and melted butter. Add the brown sugar and whisk or mix to combine. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the chopped fresh and dried pineapple and nuts. Divide the batter among the muffin tin cups. For larger muffins, fill each about 2/3 cup full.

Coconut Streusel topping: In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir until well combined.

Sprinkle the coconut streusel topping over the top of each muffin. Bake about 22-25 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the muffin cool in the muffin tin for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Comments

Bob doesn't like to hierarchalize everything, believing instead that in many cases several things can be equivalent and that they therefore can't be stuck on a ranked list. To the question, "Who is the best singer you've ever heard?" or "Which fruit do you like the best?" or "What's your favorite book?" he would say, "There are several I really like, all of them excellent." To go a bit further, Bob believes that there can be more than one perfect. He has seen half a dozen perfect smiles, all of them different, several perfect days, one cool and one warm, and several perfect vacation spots, some with beaches and some with deep forests. All this is to say that, while he won't rank this recipe along with the other recipes here on VirtualTeaTime or other sites, this one is high up in the preference and "make more" list.

And as for real perfection, Paul tells us in Romans, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2, ESV). Clearly, there are many individual perfects, for God's perfect will for each of us is unique. So stop comparing yourself to other people and then thinking that someone else is perfect and you're not. Drop that baggage into the ocean. Now, make some of these muffins and think about that.

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