fig, pecan and ginger muffins (a)

Mum left a note for me this morning...
'blah blah blah clean blah washing blah blah p.s can you make some muffins/friands?'
sure thing mum, it would be my pleasure. I think she was after some blueberry ones, but I decided that was too boring and I flipped through her recipe book to find these...fig, pecan and ginger muffins. Did we have figs? CHECK. right, these muffins it was (and it was a D.H recipe...score!)
Now, these have quite an adult taste, so I don't recommend them for children, but the spicy ginger, seedy figs and crunchy pecans mix together with the subtle batter to make a heavy, delish muffin.


Oh, this recipe calls for buttermilk, but look to 'tips' for a quick way to make it with normal pantry ingredients...milk and lemon.


Fig, pecan and ginger muffins

2 1/4 c flour
2 tspsn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 cup pecans chopped
8 dried figs chopped
3 tbspn chopped cystalised (or glace) ginger
300ml buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla essence
125g unsalted butter melted

Turn oven to 180 celcius and prepare muffin tray.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and baking powder.
Add brown sugar, pecans, figs and ginger, mix well.
In another bowl, combine melted butter, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla essence. Mix lightly with a fork.
Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and pour the wet mix in.
Stir until ingredients are just combined. Do not overmix - it should be sorta lumpy!
Spoon mix into muffin cases.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden ontop.
Best served warm.


Tips
I had too much mix, and also made 12 mini muffins - so be prepared!
If you have raw sugar, sprinkle a little ontop of the muffin before you put it in the oven.
These can be frozen!
If you don't have buttermilk, use 200mL of milk and add the juice of half a lemon. Leave it to sit for around 10-15 minutes, the milk should curdle slightly.


Enjoy!