I previously wrote that I’m having a love affair with feijoas this season. To be honest, my first taste of feijoa was in liquid form-I bought a packed juice in the supermarket about a year ago, and quite frankly, did not like it. But this year, one of my officemates brought some of the fruit for lunch, had me try it and I loved it!
Feijoa tastes like a cross between the Philippine guava and an apple. When in season (around autumn, here in NZ), you’ll find an abundance of it in the markets. They are quite sweet and seriously so yummy!
On our last road trip to Palmerston North a few weeks ago, we stopped by a roadside store selling feijoas for NZD2.99 per kilo. JP got me this big bunch! I’m the only one in the family who eats feijoas, and I couldn’t possibly eat all of them before they start rotting away.
One way of making use of super ripe or a LOT of feijoas is to make muffins out of them. Perfect to share with friends who may not like the fruit, but are ok with some muffins!
Here is a simple feijoa muffin recipe, adapted from Just a Mum. We do not have a mixer at home, so this was all mixed by hand, it was quite a workout for me! Also, since we didn’t have brown sugar at home when I baked this, I used white sugar instead as a topping. The top still came out quite crumbly, so it’s all good!
Ingredients and Instructions
1 1/2 Cups White Sugar
1 Cup Oil (or can use 225g Butter, Melted)
2 Eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
3 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
3 Cups Feijoa flesh (scooped out of overripe feijoas, I used 20 small ones)
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar (I used white, as we ran out of brown!)
Method:
- Preheat overn to 175C.
- Line muffin trays with liners or spray with cooking spray
- Scoop feijoa flesh, until you have 3 cups. Mash with fork (you can leave out some larger chunks, if you wish).
- Mix sugar and oil (or butter) until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla.
- Add flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and mix until well conbined
- Add the mashed feijoa and stir well. This will also be a good arm exercise for you as the mixture will be thick!
This is a thick batter! - Spoon the mixture into the muffin tray, about 3/4 full.
- Sprinkle sugar on top (you can be generous with this or put just a little, depending on your taste).
- Bake 18-25 minutes till golden brown or a skewer dipped into a muffin comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes, then take them out of the tray to cool further.
- Store in an airtight container.
These came out crumbly on top, and soft inside. I had about three of them with a cup of tea. When re-heating, just pop them in the microwave (about 10-20 seconds), and you can have these feijoa muffins for breakfast, or for a snack.
I hope you give these Feijoa Muffin recipe a try! For those who haven’t tasted feijoa yet, this would probably be a good introduction to the fruit. They are really yummy–a perfect treat, especially on the cold autumn and winter months!
