Vanilla Coconut Muffins

Coconut fans will want to bookmark these Vanilla Coconut Muffins because, although they look plain, they are delicious muffins that deliver a lot of flavor. I happen to be a big fan of coconut myself, and one of my pet peeves about some coconut recipes is that they don’t have very much coconut in them. These muffins don’t fit that mold at all. They are packed with lots of shredded coconut to give you a lot of coconut in every single bite.

Aside from coconut, vanilla is the other dominant flavor in these muffins. I was generous with it, to make sure that it stood out against the coconut and had a real presence in the finished muffin. The muffins are dense and tender, with a very tight crumb (thanks, in part, to all that coconut). The muffins are excellent plain, but are also very good when spread with a little bit of salted butter. These are big muffins with large, domed tops. As a result, they take a little longer to bake than some other muffin recipes might. Be sure to check them with a toothpick to make sure that it comes out clean and the muffins are fully cooked before taking them out of the oven to cool.

I like these muffins as-is, but if you want to put a little spin on them one easy way to do it is by adding some citrus zest into the muffin batter. Lemon, lime and orange all go very well with coconut and a tablespoon of zest will give these a whole new flavor.

Vanilla Coconut Muffins
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk (regular or coconut)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in shredded coconut.
In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in egg mixture. Stir until the wet ingredients are almost fully combined and only a few streaks of flour remain.
Pour in the melted butter and stir until butter is completely incorporated and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
Divide evenly into prepared muffin pan (cups will be quite full).
Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 muffins.