by Simone on May 29, 2012 // 22 Comments »

Honey lime coconut muffins with lemon curd for Monthly Mingle

Lemon curd

It’s swelteringly hot right now. We went from 11 C to 28 C almost overnight… I’m certainly not complaining that summer has arrived, it just takes a while for my body to adjust to the heat! I have just spend the afternoon lazying around in the garden. I should be removing weeds and such as those have grown in all that rain like monsters. But instead I can’t really be bothered… Not my favorite job in the world removing weeds! (I will though, soon, very soon!) The theme for this months Monthly Mingle is Honey. I thought it very fitting for these current temperatures and decided to make honey muffins. Because I wanted them to go together with my lemon curd I added lime in these.

When tasting the batter, I was a little hesitant… It tasted different from what I’m used to but once baked these were totally delicious. I added coconut to balance out the lime and some chopped and roasted hazelnuts for a little crunch. The honey I used was Manuka honey and a little bit of regular honey since I didn’t have enough. Now the topping, the topping is just plain fabulous. Ofcourse if you’re on any sort of diet (as I am!) these are not the kind of muffins with cream you want to eat but it doesn’t hurt giving them away to friends and family.

I topped the muffins with a lemoncurd/mascarpone cream. I just added lemoncurd to the mascarpone until it tasted the way I wanted it, but I think I added roughly 2/3 lemoncurd to 1/2 of mascarpone. Maybe a tiny bit more mascarpone then 1/3 but that should be about right. This was the first time I ever made lemoncurd myself and quite frankly I can’t believe how simple it was and why on earth I never made that before…

I’ll be giving you both recipes for the muffin as well as the lemoncurd as I’m sure you’re gonna love the combination! I’ve made these honey muffins for the Monthly Mingle which is hosted this month on Cook Republic where you can read all the details here. The Monthly Mingle is an invention of Meeta from What’s for Lunch Honey and you can read all about it here!

For now you might not see that many sweets here anymore for a while at least, since I really am trying to change my habits. Baking all those lovely treats is maybe not the best way to go about that… A few more days now before the 12 week body transformation kicks off, so it will be hard work from then on to get moving! You will hear all about it soon!

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Honey muffins with lime and coconut and lemon curd

Ingredients:

165g honey (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup limejuice
60 g butter (melted)
2 eggs (beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup coconut (grated, not sweetened)
272g flour
53g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup hazelnuts (roasted and chopped)

LEMONCURD

3 lemons
280g caster sugar
150g butter (at roomtemperature)
6 eggs (lightly beaten)

Directions:

Roast the hazelnuts and rub them in a teatowel to remove the skins if they are still there. Chop them roughly. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 190 C.

Combine the honey, lime juice, butter, eggs and vanilla and mix these until smooth. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda and salt in another bowl. Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until well blended. Add the chopped hazelnuts or any other ingredients you want to add at this point too.

Pour into muffin tins and fill to the rim. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked.

LEMONCURD

Put the sugar into a medium stainless steel saucepan. Wash and dry the lemons, then finely grate the zest of 2 lemons, and add the zest to the sugar.

Squeeze all 3 lemons. Pour the juice into the saucepan with the sugar, add the soft butter in pieces and the lightly beaten eggs. Place the smaller saucepan into a larger one, partly filled with hot water (au bain marie/double boiler) and simmer until the cream begins to thicken. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Never allow the curd to boil! it should only simmer very gently.

Ladle the lemon curd into perfectly clean jam jars. Close the lids tightly and store in the fridge. Lemon curd is perishable because of the eggs, so don't store it for more then two weeks.

Recipe lemoncurd from Under the walnut tree

posted in Desserts & other sweets, Food and Drink, Recipes

22 Comments »

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Peter G @ Souvlaki For The Soul — May 29, 2012 at 11:58
Stuff the diet Simone! These look too good to worry about that! I adore lemon curd-passionfruit curd is just as delicious!

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- Simone (junglefrog) — May 30th, 2012 at 10:31
  
  Well… uhm… yes I guess.. Guilty pleasures right?
  
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Rosa — May 29, 2012 at 12:15
Mmmhh, divine! That is a fabulous combination of flavors. Lemon curd is one of my favorite spreads.

Cheers,

Rosa

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- Simone (junglefrog) — May 30th, 2012 at 10:30
  
  One of my favorites too, although with that high sugar content I think I have to lay off it for a while now! I’m gonna try and make a less sweet version soon too.
  
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Norma Chang — May 29, 2012 at 13:30
Love the color of the lemon curd, agree, it is really easy to make and so delicious.

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- Simone (junglefrog) — May 30th, 2012 at 10:29
  
  Thanks Norma. it was indeed surprising simple. Almost the same as with making your own mayonnaise. I always thought it was very difficult but once I actually did it, it turned out to be sooo simple!
  
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Happy Cook / Finla — May 29, 2012 at 16:34
I love the look of that curd, looks super yumm. And muffins with those curd that sounds super. I have the flowery spoon too

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- Simone (junglefrog) — May 30th, 2012 at 10:29
  
  I love those little spoons and bowls! I’ve got to get some more too..
  
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Heidi @ Food Doodles — May 30, 2012 at 01:07
Beautiful! The curd looks like pure sunshine – I love the color!

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- Simone (junglefrog) — May 30th, 2012 at 10:28
  
  It does, doesn’t it? The color is so much more vibrant when you make it yourself. i can only guess what they put into the ones that are sold in jars!
  
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nina — May 30, 2012 at 05:18
Looks delicious Simone…great combination of flavors:)

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- Simone (junglefrog) — May 30th, 2012 at 10:27
  
  Thanks Nina. It is delicious for sure!
  
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swetla — May 30, 2012 at 08:20
sorry, where must go chopped hazelnuts?

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- Simone (junglefrog) — May 30th, 2012 at 10:27
  
  Sorry! I just added that to the instructions too. basically you stir them in at the end right before putting them in your muffin tins.
  
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Sophie — May 30, 2012 at 11:22

MMM,..what delightful & tasty looking muffins: so apart & fresh looking! I love, love lemon curd & your is rich, well flavoured & is looking fabulous!

MMMMMMM,…!

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kitchenriffs — May 30, 2012 at 17:28

Gosh, lemon is one of my favorite flavors, and lime and coconut are close. Between the muffins and the lemon curd you’ve got all of these working! Really nice recipe — thanks.

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tasteofbeirut — May 31, 2012 at 20:57

These look heavenly right now! It is warm and muggy here these days and the only escape is the mountains!

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Jenn @LeftoverQueen — June 2, 2012 at 00:29

I adore lemon curd and these muffins sound wonderful!

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Valerie — June 2, 2012 at 19:57

Wow, these sound amazing! You put a lot of care into these muffins, and it shows! They look so bright and summery.

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Jamie — June 3, 2012 at 11:41

Simone, these are lovely! And we all love lemon and lemon curd…and their gorgeous freshness and tang make the perfect summer treat. I love this – and bookmarked the recipe!

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