Pomegranate Ginger Muffins
Patricia @ ButterYum
I look forward to pomegranate season each year. As soon as they appear at Costco, I grab a case and rush home to break into them. We typically enjoy the juicy arils sprinkled on salads or eaten with a spoon, but I always save some to make these tasty pomegranate ginger muffins. I hope you'll like them as much as we do.
This recipe is pretty straight forward. The first thing we need to do is preheat the oven and prepare our muffin tin (this one is my favorite). I always spray my pans with Baker's Joy - it enables my baked goods to release perfectly.
Combine room temperature milk, a room temperature egg, and melted butter; set aside.
Have you had the pleasure of trying crystallized ginger? Good stuff!
Cut the crystallized ginger into 1/4-inch pieces. It's pretty sticky stuff so I find sharp kitchen shears work better than a knife for this job.
Ginger ready to go - I cut a little extra for nibbling.
These are pomegranate arils (seeds). If you'd like to see how I get the arils out of the pomegranate, here's a tutorial. We're going to need to reserve 70 arils for garnish. That's about 1/4 cup.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add the grated lemon zest. A microplane zester is the perfect tool to use for the job.
And the chopped ginger and pomegranate arils.
Stir everything together well; be sure the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Time to add the milk mixture.
Stir just until combined - don't be alarmed if you see a few lumps in the batter.
Evenly distribute batter into the prepared muffin pan.
Sprinkle the muffin tops with turbinado sugar. You can use granulated sugar if that's all you have, but the turbinado crystals are larger so they sparkle and add a nice crunch.
The muffins would be great if we stopped right here, but I have one more finishing touch to add.
Dot the top of each muffin with 6 arils, pressing them gently to make sure they stick to the batter. Pop the pan in the oven and bake for 12-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Note that the muffins didn't stick to the pan at all. I contribute that to the fact that 1) I used this awesome commercial quality muffin pan, and 2) I sprayed my pan with Baker's Joy.
Items used to make this recipe:
(affiliate links)
professional muffin pan https://amzn.to/3GhylD2
bakers joy https://amzn.to/3g5oOnF
crystalized ginger https://amzn.to/2IgsvJh
turbinado sugar https://amzn.to/3o7qAJm
microplane grater https://amzn.to/3s2G7LB
Pomegranate Ginger Muffins
Ingredients
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups pomegranate arils (seeds), reserve 70 for garnish
1-2 tablespoons turbinado sugar for garnish (aka sugar in the raw)
Direction
Preheat oven to 425F.
Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan with Baker's Joy or line with paper liners.
In a 2-cup measure, combine milk, egg, and butter; set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; whisk well to combine.
Add minced crystallized ginger, lemon zest, and pomegranate arils to the flour mixture; stir well to evenly distribute ingredients.
Add milk mixture, stirring just until combined.
Divvy batter evenly into the muffin pan.
Press 6 pomegranate arils on top of each muffin.
Sprinkle muffin tops with turbinado sugar.
Bake for 12-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.
Remove muffins from pan and transfer to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.