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Monday, March 21, 2005

IMBB13: Lime, white chocolate and coconut muffins



Wow. I can't believe I finally got my act together and made it to an IMBB finishing line. And before deadline too. Woohoo.

What is IMBB? It stands for Is My Blog Burning and is basically an online simultaneous theme-based cook-off. This month's IMBB theme was My Little Cupcake (or muffin). Yay, I recall was my response. Not too intimidating for this lazy chef.

A couple of days were spent recipe browsing, and er... wiping the resultant drool off the pages. I needed something I would be inspired to bake, and of course eat. But I confess I'm not a huge chocolate cake fan--I like light and tangy. Like lime. With say, white chocolate. And yes yes yes, coconut! Eureka!

I used Delia's basic American muffin recipe from her Summer Collection and then added my own quantities of lime, white chocolate and coconut. In another twist I also decided to segment the lime and use the lime pearls for maximum flavour and extra texture. I wasn't sure if this would work but hey, what are IMBBs for?

Lime, white chocolate and coconut muffins

150g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 medium egg
40g caster sugar
110ml milk
50g butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 lime
80g white chocolate chopped roughly
1/2 cup dessicated coconut

Grate the zest of the lime and set aside.
Cut the outer pith from the lime and then carefully slide the knife under one membrane and gently remove a segment of lime flesh.
Continue until all lime flesh has been extracted into a bowl for later use.
NB. This isn't as hard as it sounds as the lime membranes are quite fibrous. Alternatively you could just squeeze the limes and use the juice.

Now sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the egg, sugar, milk, butter and vanilla.
Return the dry ingredients to the sifter and sift again over the egg mixture (Delia says this double sifting is essential, and hey, Delia always knows best!).
Quickly fold the flour into the egg mixture, taking no more than 15 seconds, as over-mixing will prevent them rising.

Add the lime zest, lime flesh, white chocolate and coconut (or whatever variation you prefer), combining with minimum stirring.

Spoon into muffin trays and bake at 200C on a high shelf. Large muffins should take 30 minutes, smaller mini-muffins only about 20 minutes.

Makes 6 large muffins or 20 mini-muffins.

The verdict:

The pearls of lime flesh add a great burst of tanginess and give it a good pineapple-cake-like moistness. It's been suggested to me that maybe a more intense flavour could be achieved by infusing the milk with the lime curd and then cooling--this would make the rind strips a little softer as well as enabling a more even distribution of lime flavour.

The coconut flavour wasn't very strong so next time perhaps I'd either add more coconut, use coconut milk powder or even better, maybe a dash of Malibu!

Best part? Definitely the white chocolate surprise mouthfuls!

Overall these aren't very sweet at all, which is good as it means you can eat more (especially if you're searching for white chocolate treasures).

For a little more decadence I would definitely ice these by combining icing sugar with lime juice/pearls and adding a couple of lime zest tendrils and white chocolate shavings for extra wow factor.

But excuse me--I've got some treasure-hunting to do...

Check out all the entries in the monthly wrap-up by this month's host Maki at I was really just very hungry (coming soon).

The deadline for IMBB13: My Little Cupcake (or muffin) is this Thursday 24 March. Come on... there's muffin to it!
16 comments - Add some comment love

posted by Helen (AugustusGloop) on 3/21/2005 11:59:00 pm


16 Comments:

  • At 3/22/2005 1:22 am, Blogger Ben said…

    Good stuff - though rather than adding Malibu to the mziture why not use it as a dipping sauce? Come to think of it, you might not even need the muffins...

     
  • At 3/22/2005 2:27 am, Blogger Nic said…

    These sound absolutely delicious. I love the inclusion of the lime pearls.

     
  • At 3/22/2005 6:11 am, Blogger Ms One Boobie said…

    i love it..!! all my favourite ingredients in it.. AG..!!

     
  • At 3/22/2005 8:26 am, Blogger pinkcocoa said…

    hey AG
    *delicious!!!! Lime and coconut. It's just so Malibu. ;-) Maybe you can make a Malibu icing to go with it.

     
  • At 3/22/2005 9:20 pm, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi BHR - Malibu dipping sauce... now I've heard of everything!

    Hi Nic - Thanks! They sure taste good. They were a huge hit in the office today :-P

    Delia has a recipe for lime icing using the pearls but I thought why not incorporate it into the batter itself. I'm really happy with how it worked out actually.

    Hi MrsT - Excellent. You do have good taste! I suppose that's why I love Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine so much... nice clean fresh flavours.

    Hi Pinkcocoa - Wow. Everyone is obsessed with the Malibu idea! Actually I think I'm leaning away from the icing idea as that might detract from the white chocolate goodness. Maybe you don't even need the coconut full stop...

    And I can't wait to check out your IMBB entry. Your SHF was definitely original--I'm thinking you must have a whole pantry full of sweet potato at the moment! Well done on the creativity stakes.

     
  • At 3/22/2005 10:19 pm, Blogger Ben said…

    "Maybe you don't even need the coconut full stop..."

    I doesn't have to be Malibu. It could be Contreau. Or Passion Pop. The important part is the "dipping".

     
  • At 3/23/2005 10:12 am, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi BHR - Methinks you'd enjoy more of a Malibu consomme with muffin croutons-kinda-thing... :-P

     
  • At 3/23/2005 1:21 pm, Blogger pinkcocoa said…

    hey AG
    Actually I intended to submit that sweet potato muffin for IMBB but I used it for SHF instead. I have the whole day today to come up with something. Maybe I will just do a plain old cupcake :p
    Oh yup, I bought a 1kg pack of sweet potato. Can't believe it's now all gone! :p

     
  • At 3/23/2005 1:27 pm, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi pinkcocoa - Yeah I did think that maybe you could submit the same entry twice. Is that allowed? I don't see why not...

    But nah, go and bake a frenzy. Maybe something chocolatey? With pink icing? :P

     
  • At 3/23/2005 6:32 pm, Blogger Reid said…

    Hi AG,

    Wow! Yummy! I love the flavor of lime and can just imagine how great these taste. I'll be making these shortly! =P

     
  • At 3/24/2005 4:29 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    hey AG, the inclusion of the lime pearls was a surprise to me, but now, I think it's a wonderful way to perk up the muffin and give it a wonderful, refreshing flavour. :)

     
  • At 3/24/2005 4:24 pm, Blogger pinkcocoa said…

    hey AG, how did you know I was gonna make something chocolatey. Wow. you are pyschic. :p

     
  • At 3/26/2005 9:19 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I love these! they look so moist and yummy and I adore coconut & lime together

     
  • At 3/26/2005 2:22 pm, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi Reid - Thanks! I am a bit of a sucker for zesty desserts. Can't wait to see your interpretation of these. And to hear your tasting notes!

    Hi Julia - The lime pearl inclusion was a bit of last-minute inspiration as the mangled flesh always seem like such a waste, despite best efforts to squeeze as much juice out of them as possible!

    They definitely did add extra flavour!

    Hi pinkcocoa - Psychic? Haha... Have I show you my spoon-bending trick?

    Hi Lyn - Thanks! They were rather more-ish. I had to bring in seconds for the office the next day!

     
  • At 3/26/2005 9:14 pm, Blogger Unknown said…

    Wow, these look heavenly, and fits right in with my requirement of not-too-sweet cupcakes. I can't wait to try them out. Thanks for sharing!

     
  • At 3/27/2005 1:32 pm, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi Lynn - Thanks. These were rather tasty and yes, not too sweet. I like how muffins are so flexible. You can fold in just about anything you fancy.

     

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