Thursday 25 November 2021

Dragon Fruit Muffins - (AKA Pitahaya Or Pitaya)

Dragon fruit?  I do believe dragon fruit is a cactus, indigenous to the Americas.  It can have white, pink or yellow flesh.  I used pink-fleshed chunks, fresh from the supermarket freezer :-)  And some dragon fruit powder, delightfully, iridescently pink.  The basic muffin recipe (by Suzanne Gibbs) is from an ancient recipe I cut from a New Idea magazine aeons ago.  It called for blueberries, but I wanted to change it up.  So here we are!


see the dragon fruit seeds?

I made these in the morning, before Mr P. and I (and our friend Mr. N.) were to give a talk at the local Historical Society, of which we are members.  This was a talk we had previously given at our other Hist. Soc.  Yes, we are in two!   This one was postponed 3 times (over 18 months) due to Covid, so we were happy to finally be able to present it. 


Hubby to the left of me; Mr. N. on the right


And that's Frank Corley on the very right.  We had a lot of fun giving this talk at the Windsor & Districts Historical Society.  The funny thing is when you type in Windsor Hist. Soc., the English one pops up, so you get people adding posts to that one.  Just a wee bit far away ...



ingredients:


250g. (2 cups) plain flour (wholemeal if you have it)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb soda

2 tsp dragon fruit powder (optional)

1/2 tsp of nutmeg, and of cinnamon, and of salt

165g. (3/4 cup) demerara or raw sugar

45g. (1.6 oz) melted butter

180 mL (3/4 cup) buttermilk

1 cup frozen dragon fruit (150g.) - or blueberries or fruit of your choice

extra demerara and/or raw caster sugar to strew on top before baking


Method:


Sift the dry ingredients (EXCEPT the sugar) into a large mixing bowl, then whisk the sugar into the sifted mixture

Stir in the butter, buttermilk and fruit till just mixed - be gentle; you don't want to get the gluten into a frenzy

Spoon in the batter so your muffin holes (cups?) are three quarters full, then sprinkle on the extra sugar, if using

Bake in a preheated moderately hot oven 190C/375F for 15-20 minutes, until they are golden, have risen and smell deeeelicious 


Notes:


My batter was very dry, so I ended up adding about 60 mL (3-4 tbs) extra milk; still a rather dry, lumpy batter but that's okay!

I made my own buttermilk as I didn't have any: 3/4 cup milk to 2.5 tsp of lemon juice (or use a mild vinegar).  Leave it sit for 10 minutes, then you will have a delightfully lumpy, curdled mixture ready for the baking



sift your dry ingredients (bar the sugar) 

make your buttermilk

introduce the wet to the dry

a pretty dry batter

whack 'em in the oven for 15-20 mins.

after 20 mins. baking

they didn't last long

not too sweet, moist and fruity

Sadly the pink batter turns into a caramel-coloured muffin.  'Twas delicious nonetheless.  I feel another batch coming on soon ...




© Sherry M.


31 comments:

  1. I will take two, please :-) They look soft and tender.

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  2. I’ve never had dragon fruit though I see it in the markets here… I should try it! I don’t think it grows in the US - so maybe México and south! The muffins look so good - would love to have one now.

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  3. Farmers' markets in Hawaii are the only place I have seen dragon fruit, but that's probably due to the climate there being hospitable to the plant. Also to the climate in the northern USA being NOT AT ALL hospitable to a plant native to Central America.

    I have no idea if I could find it here. But the recipe sounds quite nice.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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    1. i read they grow wild in southern Mexico and in south america.

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  4. I've bought that frozen dragonfruit and used it in smoothies. Must try it in a muffin too!

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  5. Just lost my reply$%^& Anyway muffins look great, shame they can't stay pink and pretty.We are right into family history but haven't joined a society. DNA done, no big surprises:)

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    1. isn't that a bugger about comments?? happens heaps to me too.

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  6. Dragon fruit is good stuff, but really hard to find here. Neat recipe -- thanks.

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  7. They look delicious but it is a shame to lose that beautiful color.

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  8. Love dragon fruit which look tasty in your muffins 😋

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  9. Never thought of adding dragon fruit. They look delicious though even if not pink.

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  10. Looks yummy muffin 😁! Nice for grab and go breakfast😃.

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  11. Looks yummy muffin 😁! Nice for grab and go breakfast😃.

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  12. Sherry, I'd like one of those right this minute, please! I wonder if your batter was dry because of not having an egg or two in it? Thanks for reminding me of dragonfruit. I've never tried it, but am going to next time I see it at the market. It's about time I tried it!

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    1. on its way jean :-) yes funny how some recipes have eggs but this one doesn't...

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  13. Very modern muffins for the historical society :-) But sound like fun. That dragonfruit powder is an amazing colour - we bought some dragonfruit last year but I didn't know what to do with it when we stopped using it for smoothies - never thought to make muffins.

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    1. yes there is quite a lot in the jar! i will keep adding it to muffins and cakes...

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  14. As I read your post, I was wondering if that lovely pink batter would disappear.
    So what is Corley Explorer?

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    1. yes shame about the pink! Corley Explorer is a database of about 60K photos of local houses in QLD taken by Frank Corley. We went around finding exactly where they were, as he didn't write down the addresses.

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  15. I'd love to hear more about the talk you gave, Sherry - that is so cool! These muffins sound fantastic. I haven't really experimented much with dragon fruit - in fact, I didn't realize it was a cactus! Either way, if they are deserving of another batch, that means they must have been tasty!!

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    1. hopefully the talk will become available on youtube or something similar.

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