These muffins were inspired by my dad (what with it being Father's Day). My dad likes mangoes, and a bargain, so when I saw three nice ripe mangoes for a pound in the market yesterday I thought of him.
Ingredients:
350g ripe mango, diced
350g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
150ml water
150ml pineapple juice
6 tablespoons coconut cream
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
25g dark brown sugar
50g golden syrup
(I used brown sugar and golden syrup because my dad prefers brown sugar to refined stuff but I thought all brown sugar would be too strong a flavour, and I'd run out of my usual stuff so had to use syrup. Normally I'd just used unbleached granulated sugar.)
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees
Prepare your muffin tins for about 18 cakes (I used half paper cases and half silicone, as I wasn't sure which would work best).
I took 1 mango, did the old slicing it lengthways along the stone, crosshatching with a knife and then turning the skin inside out to cut out the flesh in cube-ish shapes. I got around 350g of flesh from that, but it could probably go 50g less with no harm done.
Save 200g of the mango as cubes, and put the rest in a blender with the water, juice, oil, brown sugar, coconut cream and golden syrup. Whizz it up until there are no lumps left. If the sugar persists in being lumpy leave it for 5 minutes to dissolve a bit then try again.
Sieve the flour into a largeish mixing bowl, add most of the blended liquid mixture and mix it in, see what kind of consistency it is. If it's not too stiff mix the mango cubes in, otherwise add the remains of the liquid, then the cubes. Fill muffin cases 2/3 - 3/4 up, then stick the trays in the oven for approx 15-20 minutes (my oven is fan assisted - basically, keep them in until they've gone golden brown). Swap the trays over after 10 minutes if you've got them at different shelf heights.
When done, remove from oven and cool on a baking rack. I tend to leave my muffins in the tins until they're cool so the sides don't crisp up, but as these are quite moist anyway, they may be better directly on the cooling rack.
***
These taste pretty good with an even balance between fruity and coconutty, although the texture in the silicone cups was a little dense. Could be that I added too much liquid (I didn't follow my own advice up there, it all went in straight away!)
I was hoping to be able to send some of these to my dad (who lives about 100 miles away from me), as my housemate's dad who lives in the same town was visiting us. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and he had to leave while they were still in the oven, but I did manage to send some chocolate-marzipan muffins back with him for my dad.
