Pineapple Muffins

Pineapple doesn’t make it into my baked goods very often. This is partially because it is a little bit inconvenient to chop up a whole pineapple for just a cup or so of chopped fruit and partially because I just don’t have that many recipes for it. But this is a shame because pineapple is a fruit that cooks very well. Roasted pineapple, a great summertime dessert, is sweet and tender, and pineapple baked into a muffin, bread or cake turns out the same way.

Since I had some leftover pineapple in my fridge (from a time I was feeling motivated to cut up a whole, spiny fruit), I decided to take my own advice and bake it into something for a snack. The result was pineapple muffins. These muffins are moist and tender, and the small chunks of fresh pineapple seem to triple in sweetness as the muffins bake, giving the finished treats a great tropical taste.

I added a little bit of shredded coconut and a little bit of orange zest to these muffins to highlight the pineapple flavor. The coconut adds a little bit of texture to the muffins and definitely brings out the tropical-ness of the pineapple. The orange zest brings out the citrusy notes of the pineapple, making the whole muffin taste brighter. Lemon or lime zest would make a great substitution, too.

Serve these muffins while they’re still slightly warm with a little bit of butter. They make a great snack in the afternoon, but are easy enough to make (as long as you have some pineapple on hand) that they are well worth the effort of getting up a few minutes early so you can bake a batch for breakfast.

Pineapple Muffins
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup buttermilk
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
2 tsp orange zest
1 cup chopped pineapple
coarse sugar, for topping

Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and shredded coconut.
In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, melted butter egg and orange zest. Add to flour mixture and stir to combine, mixing only until no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Stir in chopped pineapple.
Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups (cups will be very full) and sprinkle generously with coarse sugar.
Bake for 16-19 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Cook muffins on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 muffins.