“Cotton Candy Grape Muffin” “わたあめブドウ” のマフィン

This is a muffin my wife came up with using our favorite “Cotton Candy Grapes”. These are seedless (mostly) green table grapes which are sweet and really taste like “cotton candy”. We really like them and as a result, this time, we over did it and bought too many. A small remainder of the batch we bought was getting to the point we had to use/eat them fairly soon before they went bad. My wife decided to make a muffin using the grapes cut-up as well as pureed. She thought she could modify her “ apple pie muffin” recipe. This turned out to be quite a good muffin. The grape flavor was a bit muted but the cut-up grapes did add real grape flavors (the cut grapes shown as light green shapes in the first picture). This is unqualified success using a bit unusual ingredients for muffins.

Ingredients:
For the muffins: 
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour,
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 
1 tsp. cardamon
2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened,
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; for table salt use half as much by volume
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1/3 cup grape puree, at room temperature.
1 to 2 cups cut up grapes

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Using an emersion blender puree the grapes to make 1/3 cup puree (#1).  Cut 1 to 2 cups of grapes into pieces and set aside (#2). In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat granulated sugar and butter on medium speed until fluffy, about 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down sides as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition, about 30 seconds. Add the sour cream and grape puree stirring to combine completely.

In a medium bowl, whisk together salt, baking powder, baking soda, flour, cinnamon and cardamon. Add cut up grapes and stir until coated with flour. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture until flour mixture is moistened. 

Spoon batter into bottom of each paper liner (#3). Bake for 5 minutes at 400 degrees. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue baking until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 12 to 18 minutes, rotating pan halfway. Let cool in pan 10 minutes. (#4)

These muffins had a dense but tender texture. The grape flavor came through mostly as a mild sweetness. The cut up grapes for the most part disappeared. Maybe they were absorbed into the dough (or maybe not well distributed). Although the use of grapes was a bit unusual it worked. 

We have a quite few amaryllis which my wife keeps alive and thriving for many years. Many of them keep blossoming every year, either for Christmas or  Easter. Although she marked the amaryllis which bloomed the previous year Christmas (2023) and started tending them at Thanksgiving so they would bloom at Christmas (2024).  They remained completely dormant. Finally about a week ago they decided to bloom. Here is a pic of the flower that gave actual meaning to the phrase “late bloomer” Meanwhile the Easter ones are quickly catching up. But better late than never. We really enjoy these flowers.