Author Notes
The muffin really is the great afterthought of the baking world.
It’s not sexy, it’s not especially pretty, and Dominque Ansel probably ain’t gonna produce a 1000-person line out of his front door by genetically splicing one with a donut.
Which is sad, really. There’s something warm and comforting and honest about the muffin that its flashy, frosting-crowned cousin the cupcake just can’t replicate. Hell, you can’t even eat a warm cupcake without the frosting sloughing off the top like a gross dessert snake shedding for the winter. That’s point one for our friend, the muffin.
So, yeah, they’re not cool. And Coconut-Date Muffins don’t sound very cool either. So what? Your taste buds don’t give a shit whether they’re eating something cool for breakfast, and you shouldn’t either. Stop relegating the muffin to a sad, shrink-wrapped corner of your local Starbucks-like and start giving it the respect it deserves.
And give it a mug of tea, too. It probably gets thirsty over there in the corner. —Fresh Beats, Fresh Eats
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Ingredients
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1 cup
Medjool Dates (pitted)
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1 1/2 teaspoons
baking soda
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1 teaspoon
baking powder
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1/4 cup
toasted sweetened shredded coconut
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1/2 cup
sweetened shredded coconut
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1 cup
boiling water
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1 cup
AP flour (+ 2 tbsp)
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1 teaspoon
kosher salt
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1/2 cup
unsalted butter (room temp)
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1 cup
sugar
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2
eggs
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1 teaspoon
vanilla extract
Directions
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First, preheat that oven to 325.
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Toss the dates in a small bowl with a teaspoon of baking soda, then pour the boiling water on top and let them sit for 15 minutes. Once they're nice and soft, mash em up with a potato masher until they turn into a gross-looking paste-like thing.
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Beat the butter in a stand mixer on medium for 2-3 minutes, until it gets light and creamy.
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Add in the sugar and beat it for 2-3 more minutes on medium.
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Mix in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
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Whisk up a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, the baking powder, flour, and salt in a bowl.
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Slowly mix in the dry ingredients and the date goo, alternating between them until both are all mixed in. Make sure you don't overmix it, too.
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Fold in the untoasted coconut, then put the batter in a cupcake tin with some cupcake liners and sprinkle the toasted coconut on top. All you have to do to toast the coconut is throw it on the stove in a small pan on medium until it gets toasty and brown. Simple.
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Throw 'em in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
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Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes, then take them out of the tin and let them sit on a cooling rack for another 15.
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Shove one or two of said muffins in your face.
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