Grape-puree Muffin ブドウのピューレのマフィン

We like grapes and often have them for dessert. Our favorites are “Holiday grapes” and “Cotton Candy grapes”. But they are not always available. For example, “Holiday grapes” are only available October to mid-December (hence the name, “holiday” grape). Cotten Candy grapes grown in California are available mid July through September. Cotton Candy grapes grown in Mexico are available April and May. In general we are not fans of generic red and green grapes so whenever we see “special” grapes with the word “sweetness” in the varietal name we try them out. That is what happened recently.

Our usual favorites were not available but we found some green grapes with a fancy name alluding to “sweetness” at Whole Foods and went for them. We were hoping they would be a potential replacements for our aforementioned two favorite grapes. Unfortunately, they turned out to be just tough skin and seeds. What little interior meat they had, although only a small proportion of the whole grape, was indeed quite sweet. But in general, by our standards, these were not good eating grapes.

Not to be deterred, my wife remembered her recent experience making strawberry muffins using a fresh strawberry syrup reduction. She thought, ‘why not try the same thing with these grapes?’ Making them into a grape syrup reduction would eliminate the tough skin and numerous seeds because they would be strained out when the cooked grapes were sieved. Wouldn’t that highlight and accentuate what sweetness the grapes had in their interior meat?’ So that is what she did. Turned out it worked.

Ingredients:
Grape muffin:
1 1/2 cups (180g) cake flour
1 cup (198g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon tabler / salt
6 tablespoons (85g) butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 large egg white
3 tablespoons (43g) water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup grape reduction

Grape reduction:
Package of sweet eating grapes, cooked, pureed, strained, then reduced

Directions:
For the grape reduction:
Put the grapes in a saucepan. Gently heat them on simmer until the skins open releasing juice and interior meat. (These grapes took a very long time to open; the skins were really thick and tough). After the grapes open and exude liquid puree and strain them. (We used a motor boat blender). Return the puree to the pan a continue simmering on low heat until the liquid reduces and turns darker and slightly thicker. (This further concentrates the flavor.)

For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with baking cups. In a cuisine art blender fitted with a blade combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and mix at low speed until the mixture looks sandy. (Similar to making biscuit dough). Beat in the egg, the extra egg white, water, and vanilla, then mix until no dry spots of flour remain. The mixture will be thick. Add 1/2 cup of the grape reduction. Continue to mix on low speed until the batter is smooth. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins.

Bake the cupcakes for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove the cupcakes from the oven, and as soon as you can handle them, remove them from the pan and transfer them to a rack to cool.

This was a great muffin. It had a very refined texture and elegant flavor that was somewhat mysterious. Unlike the strawberry muffins which announced their strawberry-ness very assertively these muffins had a lovely fresh flavor that indicated they were made with fresh fruit but the actual fruit’s identity was not announced flavor-wise although it had a very light natural but rich sweetness. It did not particularly taste grape-like but these were, without a doubt, one of the best muffin we ever made. This distinctive flavor may be unique to the type of grape we used. Unfortunately neither of us payed particular attention to the grapes name so we may not be able to reproduce it again. Nonetheless, we wanted this post for our record.