Pineapple Coconut Banana Muffins - #MuffinMonday

Upon realising that I'd be using pineapples for another challenge, I immediately decided that I'd use pineapples for Muffin Monday. The decision was sealed when I flipped my calendar to September and noticed that Pineapple Coconut Muffins was the recipe for September. But when I realised that Stacy was sharing pineapple muffins too, I decided to change things up a bit. The next day, a friend stopped by and picked lots of coconuts. He not only picked them, he also husked and removed the meat from the shell. That meant I didn't have to play with the machete nor throw coconuts at the wall. So now coconuts could be added to my pineapple muffins. Later that evening, I realised I had a couple very brown bananas. Well, now it's pineapple, coconut, and banana! Perfection. 

These are actually better than the plain pineapple muffins that I'd made before so thanks universe for making this happen.  The muffins are on the lighter side. The banana flavour is there, the coconut is adding some crunch while the pineapple is subtle. You could perhaps add some pineapple extract to boost the flavour. 

Pineapple Coconut Banana Muffins

Yield - 12 muffins

Ingredients 
1 cup brown sugar (I used light brown sugar)
1/2 cup mashed banana
1/3 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
2 cups flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Line a muffin pan with wrappers or grease thoroughly. Preheat oven to 425 F.

Mash together the sugar and banana then add in the pineapple and almond extract. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and oil and then add to the banana mixture.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients. Mix only until just combined.

Fill each muffin well almost full.

Bake for 5 minutes at 425F then lower oven to 350F. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. 

Notes

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home.

• Appalachian Pawpaw Muffinsfrom Palatable Pastime
• Apple Oatmeal Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pineapple Coconut Banana Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Sourdough Date Nut Cranberry Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Sweet Pineapple Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Whole Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding with Pineapple Sauce

Sweet potatoes and pineapple won September's Crazy Ingredient Challenge poll. Two relatively sweet ingredients and I, the dessert queen, almost made a savoury dish. Oh the horror. I pictured sweet potato cupcakes with a pineapple frosting, piped all perfectly like a sunflower. Perfect piping? Quite a dream. So why no cupcakes? Simple reason. Jamaican sweet potatoes are a bit different from American sweet potatoes. On the outside, the skin is a reddish colour. On the inside, they are white, yellow, or orange. It's not easy to find the orange ones in my area. The water content is also different. American sweet potatoes are WET compared to ours. With that in mind, I didn't want to try them in cupcakes. I couldn't think of another dessert so I decided to go savoury

Source

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But then I remembered that there is one way that we do use sweet potatoes in dessert. And that's in a sweet potato pudding. The sweet potato is grated - a good a workout for the arm - and then combined with spices, coconut milk and a little flour. Some add rum, cornmeal, and other tubers too. Traditionally, this would be baked over coals and with coals piled on top too. "Hell at the top and hell at the bottom."

This was my second time making sweet potato pudding. The first time, I used American sweet potatoes and that pudding probably took as long as the Thanksgiving turkey to bake. Silly me forgot that the American sweet potatoes had a higher water content and did not compensate. It still tasted good though - just not as firm. If you do try with American sweet potatoes, I honestly cannot tell you how much liquid to use. I'd have to get some and try again. You can find the variety of sweet potatoes that we have here in an international supermarket. In the Cuban supermarkets in Miami, they are labelled "boniato". Other places call them to "batata" and Trudy says she finds them labelled as "Japanese sweet potatoes".

Remember to look at the other sweet potato and pineapple creations below.

Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding with Pineapple Sauce

Ingredients
Pudding
900 grams sweet potato
200 grams brown sugar
120 grams flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
700 ml coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon browning (optional)
Sauce
1 20 ounce can pineapple pieces
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
Maraschino cherries, chopped
splash of rum


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9" pan and line it with parchment paper.

Grate or process the sweet potatoes and set them aside. In another bowl, mix together sugar, flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Toss in the sweet potatoes until they are coated. Pour in the coconut milk, vanilla, and browning (if using). Stir until combined.

Bake 45 minutes or until the pudding is set.

For the pineapple sauce, drain the pineapple and reserve 3/4 cup of liquid. Whisk together the liquid with the cornstarch until well dissolved. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then ad the sugar and cornstarch mixture. Keep stirring! Let the mixture boil for one minute and then add the pineapple pieces and cherries. Keep stirring until the fruit is warm then remove from the heat and stir in a splash or three of rum.

Serve over pudding.

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