Maple Muffins

This is another recipe from Sarabeth Levine's lovely cookbook.  Everything I have made out of this book is delicious, and these flavourful muffins are no exception.  They have lovely crunchy tops with a moist intense maple center.  

Most of my muffins end up with soft tops so I was excited that these turned out more like bakery muffins, if that makes sense.  You start with the oven at a high heat (400 degrees F) and then turn down after 10 minutes.  I guess that's the secret!

I used white whole wheat flour in place of the all-purpose to healthify them a bit, and didn't toast the walnuts since I was too lazy, but I'm sure it would add more of a nutty flavour.  These were great and a total hit at our house, adults and kids alike gobbled them up.

Maple Muffins
Adapted from Sarabeth Levine

Ingredients
Softened unsalted butter, for the pan
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups pure maple syrup, preferably Grade B
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup whole milk
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (I didn't bother)

Position a rack in the center of he oven and preheat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Brush the insides of 12 muffin cups with softened butter, then brush the top of the pan.

Whisk the unbleached flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Whisk the maple syrup, melted butter, and milk together in another bowl, then whisk in the egg and yolk.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until smooth.  Stir in the walnuts. Let the batter stand so the dry ingredients can absorb the liquid, about 5 minutes.

Using a 2 1/2 inch-diameter ice-cream scoop, portion the batter, rounded side up, into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 10 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake until the tops of the muffins are golden brown and a wire cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15 minutes more.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Remove the muffins from the pan and cool completely.

Linked to
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday