These Japanese Persimmon Pistachio Muffins, one of 52 best muffin recipes, are a fusion or East and Middle Eastern flavors.
Favorite Autumn Muffin Recipes
Obviously they are most enhanced by the warm spices of cinnamon and allspice since persimmon has a very mild flavor.
My intention in combining the beautiful colors of the orange persimmon and green pistachio is to pay homage to the fallen leaves of autumn.
On a chilly day, enjoying the last days of dining al Fresco, a persimmon pistachio muffin with a warm cup of Golden Milk Cocktail, about wraps up the last of my outdoor dining.
Easy Muffin Recipes
Sure, we all love scrumptious apple cinnamon muffins, at the onset of Autumn.
When there is lots of overripe bananas, we want healthy banana muffins too.
However, if the muffin recipe we want to make, isn’t fast and easy, chances are we’ll end up buying a ‘quickie’ at our pit-stop coffee shop, and who knows what’s in those!
I can promise you that the actual nutritional content of my muffins have been carefully chosen, for the love of my children, of whom I created them for.
Homemade Muffins With A Purpose
There’s a good reason I created 52 muffins, in My Muffin Madness cookbook; as a single mom of four, I needed a ‘make-ahead breakfast’ for those insanely busy years.
Not just any ole store bought muffin or boxed muffin, but healthy muffin recipes with less sugar, wholesome ingredients, whether savory muffins or seasonal flavor muffins; like the beloved pumpkin muffin.
Want to know what the best part of this collection of muffin recipes is?
These easy recipe muffins could be (and were), made by the kids (taking turns of course, so no bickering), making my job as a single mom a tad easier.
That is why, in my family, I am known as the Muffin Queen!
Let’s Talk First About A Base Recipe Before I Share My Best Muffin Recipes With You
The good news is that nearly every basic muffin recipe starts out with rather basic ingredients; dry ingredients and wet ingredients, using something to puff them up.
As I pondered every muffin recipe I would create, these were the first two categories I gave much thought to, and where I could incorporate healthy ingredients.
Dry Ingredients, are definitely much more than all purpose flour and baking powder.
This category is the perfect way to build nutritional support into these individual little quick breads.
Options For The Flour Mixture
- Almond flour, or any nut, oat, spelt or barley flake, ground into a flour.
- Whole wheat flour or gluten-free option flour, instead of bleached flour.
- Dry sweetener, can be white sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, stevia, or monk fruit sweetener.
- Cocoa powder, carob powder, protein powder, depending on the flavor, or muffin you are making, becomes part of the dry ingredient mixture.
- Warm spices such as our favorite cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, or exotic spices such as Mahlab, Mastic, even root powders such as beets measure into the dry mix.
Wet Ingredient Options
- Some type of fat is needed to make for moist muffins and there are so many choices here, from melted butter, a vegetable oil, nut oils, or simply use the fat in almond butter or peanut butter.
- Eggs contribute much of the rising aspect when baking muffins, and while egg substitutes can be used such as flax egg or aquafaba (the liquid in a can of chickpeas), these options work however the rise or texture may not be quite the same.
- Creamy ingredients have so many options, from the basic milk in your fridge (dairy, coconut milk or almond milk), to Greek yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese.
- The wet aspect of the muffin batter must also take into account, when balancing wet and dry, ingredients such as maple syrup or honey, pumpkin if making pumpkin muffins, squashed banana, fresh blueberries or other fresh fruit juices such as lemon juice. These are wet aspects that need balancing along with the dry ingredients.
Making The Muffin Recipe
Once the wet and dry ingredients have been mixed, along with your favorite add-ins, we are ready to bake.
A muffin tin is most commonly used, metal or silicone, and they are usually lined with muffin liners, also known as cupcake liners.
The use of paper liners makes it easier to remove the muffins once baked, without the added step of having to grease or spray the muffin cups.
I have also included, in my cookbook, a fun Tahini Muffin Tops recipe (made from homemade tahini), because let’s face it, we usually love the tops most, however these muffin tops tins do need to be greased.
Last is the consideration of the oven temperature.
Regardless of the muffin recipe, I find the best results by placing in a high temperature setting, even if you turn it down after the first 5-minutes of bake time.
This helps to firm a crust on the muffin tops, while baking the inside of the muffin consistently.
Muffins will last about a week in an airtight container in the fridge, but are best served room temperature or as warm muffins.
Best Breakfast Muffin Recipes To Love
Like I said, there are 52 muffin recipes in my cookbook, and I am continually adding more new ones here on my blog.
However, the muffins I am listing here, usually rank at the top of healthy breakfast muffins folks are generally looking for.
- Apple Muffins – Recipe has the added healthy ingredients of oats, nuts and lots of fresh apples for an Autumn hug.
- Zucchini Muffins – European inspired healthier zucchini lemon bread or muffin recipe is made with pure Rapeseed oil, kefir, lots of garden fresh zucchini and two whole lemons.
- Healthy Muffins made of Homemade Breakfast Granola – with oats, bran, spelt, nuts, dried fruits and maple syrup or molasses, is packed with nutrition and no added sugar.
- Best Blueberry muffins – are a smoothie bowl To-Go, baked with oats, yogurt, plump blueberries, cardamom, more practical than a bowl!
- Banana Muffin Recipe – are made with barley flour, sweet ripe bananas, olive oil, yogurt and molasses, for the best healthy banana muffins ever.
- Sweet Potato Muffins – while this recipe was created around an AB Blood type, and can only be found in my cookbook, its concept was designed from my Sweet Potato Pie.
Best Savory Muffin Recipes
Since I am more of a savory food eater than a sweets eater, I went a bit nuts in creating fun savory muffins that are family favorite whimsical recipes.
Savory muffins are a great way to make a small to-go meal with healthy ingredients.
- Egg muffins – of course these are filled with anything from veggies to sausage and cheese, and are as good for lunch, late-in-the-day snack or a breakfast muffin. Created to be more like a quiche without the crust and are in my cookbook!
- Spanakopita muffins – all the yummy spinach, feta, lemon, fresh oregano and eggs found in spanakopita, made into a muffin, without phyllo!
- Cheeseburger muffins – All your favorite burger ingredients in a muffin batter with another mini cheeseburger on top, pickles and tomatoes!
- Pizza – yes these muffins are also a part of the cookbook and with each bite, you’d swear it was a pizza, with sausage, parmesan crisps and lots of tomato and garlic.
- O-Blood Type Muffin – made with bison or venison, goat cheese, beet greens, pepper flakes and lots of other unique ingredients, this recipe too can only be found in my Muffin Madness cookbook.
Today’s Muffin Recipe Is Japanese Persimmon Pistachio Muffins
Muffins and tea bread, for me, are simply a quick bread I bake to enjoy with afternoon tea. I will bake them in both a muffin tin for individual servings, or a mini-loaf pan to slice for two.
That steamed persimmon bread I made years ago was delicious, but took too darn long to prepare, bake and cool.
Muffins were going to be my quick approach to capturing the tart yet sweet taste of the persimmon. Pistachios were going to be ground to a powder to both enhance the texture of the flour, and crushed pistachios would be sprinkled across the tops.
Persimmon fruit takes a little longer to bake than most other fruits. The muffins took longer to bake than other muffins I bake, about 50-minutes. The batter was, however, fast to mix and quick to cool. It was a winner for sure!
Persimmon
Like no other fruit, persimmon stands alone yet similar to an apricot, a mango and a sweet pepper, making it a delicious fruit to pair with pistachio for muffins or tea breads.
Its density is almost like cheese, and less like a juicy fruit, yet there is a hidden sweetness to its pulp, one must find a way to reveal.
When perfectly ripe, looking rather rotten on the outside, the persimmon seems to be coming into its moment of stardom. When underripe, yet gorgeous on the outside, the best way to hurry this fruit into scrumptiousness is to cook it!
Japanese Persimmon
While my first encounter with persimmon was many years ago when I studied the Japanese language and culture, before that time, I have never seen or tasted persimmon.
Though language studies often teach us about a culture’s cuisine as well, I walked away from those years still knowing little about the national fruit of Japan.
It’s never too late to discover new foods. Once I read how the bright orange color of the persimmon would light up the landscape of Japan, when the leaves fell to the ground here at home, I knew I needed to embrace it as well, in my autumn cooking.
Persimmon In Steamed Breads
My first experiment with persimmon was to make a steamed bread, likened to a steamed pudding.
Fresh persimmon and lots of dried fruits went into the batter and it took nearly two hours to cook in a water bath, low and slow in the oven.
Once the bread cooled, it was dense, loaded with flavor and texture and something I definitely wanted for the cold days of winter, by a warm fire with tea.
How To Make Japanese Persimmon Pistachio Muffins
In a food processor, grind some of the pistachios to a flour, and puree the persimmons.
Proceed to mix this quick bread, just like most; wet ingredients whisked into dry ingredients.
Transfer to muffins tins or mini loaf pans, sprinkle the tops with sugar and chopped pistachios and bake.
The texture of these baked persimmon muffins are more likened to a steamed pudding rather than a cake. Lovely warm with a cup of tea!
Ingredients Needed
- Persimmon
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Sunflower oil
- Pineapple juice
- Soy milk
- Orange zest
- Flour
- Pistachios
- Coarse sugar
- Allspice
- Cinnamon
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Salt
Equipment Needed
- Food Processor
- Muffin tins or Mini Loaf tins
- Baking paper cups
- Cutting board
- Chopping knife
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Baking tester
- Oven
Japanese Persimmon Muffins
Equipment
- Food processor
- Muffin tin
Ingredients
- 3 Ripe persimmon
- 3 Eggs
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1/2 cup Sunflower oil
- 1/2 cup Pineapple juice
- 1/2 cup Soy milk or nut milk
- 1 tsp Orange zest
- 2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup Pistachios – ground 2 tbsp rough chopped
- 1 tbsp Coarse sugar
- 1/2 tsp Allspice
- 1 tbsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Prepare muffin tins with baking paper or loaf pans with non-stick spray and a dusting of flour.
- In a food processor, grind 1/4 cup of pistachios to a powder. Remove and puree the persimmons that have been rough chopped.
- While persimmons are in the processor, add the sugar, eggs, oil, juice, milk, zest and pulse a few times to blend.
- Add the flour, pistachio flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt and puree.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared baking tins. Sprinkle the coarse sugar and chopped pistachios on top.
- Bake until a golden crust forms on the tops, about 55-60 minutes.
Notes
- Pineapple juice has the acidity to breakdown an enzyme in the persimmon making it both sweeter and more tender.
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.