Happy October! My favorite month of the year has arrived once again.
I’m slowly beginning to build my collection of winter squash. I have a long way to go to reach the standards of previous years, but there is still plenty of time.
I decided to break into the season with a batch of muffins. Not just your ordinary winter squash muffins, but double ginger winter squash muffins.
Extra ginger makes all the difference, in my opinion.
One change that goes along with living in the Bay Area is that I can no longer complain about the endless cold days of January and February. No, no complaining here. In fact, you can’t get much closer to perfect for me. Sunshine and jacket weather, nicely balanced with a gloomy day that requires a scarf and maybe gloves.
I’ve always considered citrus season a bright spot in a long, dreary winter. Now it’s a bonus during an already enjoyable time of year. And wow, did I completely underestimated how amazing citrus season would be around here!
I’m not unfamiliar with regular access to amazing oranges. I had my pick of them when we lived in Brazil, but four varieties of oranges, mandarins, tangerines, lemons and sweet limes is a whole new ball game. We’ve purchased so much the past two weekends, we can barely carry them back to our apartment. Yet the fruit basket is completely empty come the following Saturday.
I’m incredible picky about my citrus. Mainly the seeds and tough membranes. It’s such an issue for me that I still serve my oranges old school cafeteria-style, sliced in quarters and eaten like a fourth grader. I’ve just now come around to the peel-and-eat citrus like mandarins, if they are small, tender and sweet.
Last week I was introduced to a new favorite that meets all my criteria – Page Tangerines. They are a cross of clementines and minneolas (tangelos). They are unbelievably sweet and tender. Some people at the Farmer’s Market stall complained that they are a little hard to peel, but I didn’t mind this too much.
Given that I can’t seem to control myself, and always buy way too much citrus, I decided to use some in muffins this past weekend. Along with the sweet citrus, I added walnuts for a little crunch and a sprinkle of raw sugar on the top.
Makes: 12 muffins
Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup raw sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup olive oil
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 Page tangerines, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp Page tangerine zest
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Raw sugar to top the muffins
Prep:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease the bottom of each muffin tin. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar, milk, olive oil, egg and vanilla.
Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing just until combined. Fold in the tangerines, zest and walnuts. Divide into 12 muffins. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with about a 1/2 tsp of raw sugar. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until muffins are browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and remove from pan.
I have a few pumpkins stored for the winter; and by stored I mean that they are still sitting in the corner by the front door where they once served as autumn decorations. But this spot is relatively cold and is as good a place as any to store a pumpkin. With the warm winter we’ve had, the garage hasn’t been an option this year.
Last week I noticed that one wasn’t going to make it through the rest of the winter so it was time to roast it up. With lots of pumpkin in the freezer already I thought I’d better go ahead and use this batch.
I get tired of standard muffin flavors, even pumpkin, so I added some black sesame seeds that were leftover from the Whole Wheat Black Sesame Cookies. Not a bad combination, this pumpkin and black sesame. I can see it paring up again sometime in the future.
These muffins use virgin coconut oil, whole wheat pastry flour and raw sugar. Other ingredients such as butter and unbleached AP flour, or even a non-dairy milk, can be substituted if that is how you roll.
Makes: 12 muffins
What you’ll need:
¾ cup milk, room temperature
¼ cup cold-pressed, virgin coconut oil, melted
½ cup raw sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds, plus more for sprinkling
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly grease a 12-muffin tin with some coconut oil.
In a bowl, mix together the milk and coconut oil. Next whisk in the sugar, and the egg until blended. Add in the pumpkin and vanilla.
Add the baking powder and salt, and gently fold in the flour just until barely blended. Add the sesame seeds, continue to fold just until all ingredients are combined.
Distribute batter into the 12 muffin tins. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with more sesame seeds. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 5 – 7 minutes, remove from muffin tin and serve or store in an airtight container.
What exactly is a jackfruit?
Well, it is likely the largest fruit you’ve ever seen. My first encounter with them was in Brazil, the photo at the right was taken in Ubud-Bali, Indonesia. When I say big, I mean when they are sitting on the ground they would come up to about mid-thigh, some perhaps even to your waist.
I might also mention that they are quite scary. There were many growing in the park around the zoo where we lived in Brazil. On more than one occasion I heard a ripe one fall out of a tree and hit the ground. Beneath such a tree you do not want to be. Loudest thud I’ve ever heard.
I only tasted them once when we were in Brazil at the local farmer’s market. It was a sticky, gooey piece of fruity flesh that tasted somewhat like a mix between a mango, banana and pineapple. I had a difficult time with the texture, but the fruit has a delicious flavor.
Despite my easy access, I never bought one. I often regret that decision now, but there were two reasons for this. The first was their size. About 98% of the time I went to the market by myself and this required a 20 minute walk each way. Yeah, lugging a fruit the size of my lower body back to the apartment wasn’t going to happen.
Second, anytime we got into a conversation about jaca (the Portuguese word for jackfruit) we were warned of the sticky flesh. Apparently it is no less binding than a good glue and I heard horror stories from friends about how they spent days trying to get it off their hands after they would eat them outdoors as kids. I really didn’t want to tackle that either.
Before we left Brazil, Tracey at the Tangled Noodle posted a recipe for Langka Muffins. Langka is jackfruit in the Philippines. What a language lesson you are getting in this post!
After seeing the recipe, I wanted to try it, but still didn’t get up the courage to buy fresh jackfruit. Then, when we were in Thailand I tried a jackfruit shake that was incredible and my interest grew.
The next thing I knew we had moved back to the US and I found canned jackfruit at our international market. I know it is a bit backwards for a real foodie to have access to the fresh and go for the canned, but the canned I knew I could handle.
I know one thing though, Tracey wasn’t kidding! Those muffins are delicious! I modified the recipe a bit to use whole grains, coconut oil and some mascavo sugar I have left from Brazil. I also topped some of them with coconut before baking.
Jackfruit Muffins
Modified from Langka Muffins at Tangled Noodle
Ingredients
2 cups white whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup minimally refined sugar
½ cup milk
1/3 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
1 egg, beaten
1 cup chopped jackfruit with ¼ cup syrup reserved
½ cup shredded coconut,unsweetened (optional)
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease or spray the bottom of each muffin tin with coconut oil or non-stick spray. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar, milk, oil, egg and jackfruit syrup.
Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry. Stir in the jackfruit just until everything is combined. This batter will be very thick. Divide into 12 muffins. Press coconut into the top of each muffin if using. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until muffins are browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and remove from pan. Makes 12 muffins.
