Baklava Muffins & Me!

Well, this is the first entry and my first blogging experience and what better way to start with than the reason for the description of my blog…..gooey, crunchy, soft & filling!

Baklava Muffins

Every time I mention these to people they look at me like I’m a crazy woman and automatically ask ‘what’s in a baklava muffin??’…well, you know the sticky, nutty, sweet deliciousness that you find in traditional Baklava? That’s what in them!

I discovered these in one of my many cookbooks (Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess) but adapted them slightly, the original recipe was made with walnuts but in all honesty and no disrespect to the humble walnut but I’m not a massive fan, so I swapped them to pecans and also increased the amount of them! You can never have enough filling!

So here goes….

For the Filling

150g chopped pecans (don’t chop them too small)

75g Demerara sugar

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

45g salted butter (melted)

For the Muffins

210g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

75g caster sugar

1 large egg (room temperature)

45g unsalted butter (melted)

250ml buttermilk

(Or if you can’t find buttermilk- 175g yoghurt & 75g semi skimmed milk)

12 bun muffin tray lined with 12 paper cases.

For the topping

125ml runny honey

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 °C
• Mix all the filling ingredients together in a small bowl, put it to one side and then get started on the muffins…. (Try not to nibble at it like me…but honestly, it is delicious and very hard to resist!)
•  In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar, then in a wide mouthed jug whisk the egg, melted butter and buttermilk (or yoghurt milk mix).
• Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the liquid and mix lightly and gently – do not over mix, keep the mixture bumpy rather than smooth (I know it’s against your instinct but trust me, any over mixing makes for heavy muffins…..
• Fill the paper cases 1/3 full, add a tablespoon of the filling to them, and then cover with more muffin mixture until 2/3’s full.
• Sprinkle and remaining filling on top of the muffins.
• Bake for 15 minutes, they should be golden brown and ready….
• Remove the muffins from the tin (still in their paper cases though), place them onto a cooling rack and drizzle them with the honey…. You might want to warm the honey a little first as it tends to be easier to pour.
• Eat & Enjoy!!!

Note – these muffins are best eaten on the day that they are made or the day after (if they last that long!)