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This recipe for pistachio muffins should taste like they came straight from a bakery. With a really pronounced pistachio flavor and color, they should be light, airy, and super professional, not to mention tasty.
For more tasty baked recipes, why not learn this tasty Basic Muffin recipe? Or learn to make some Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins instead?
Table of Contents
- Pistachio Muffins
- Pistachio Muffins Ingredients
- How To Make Pistachio Muffins
- How To Check Your Muffins For Doneness
- When to Pull the Muffins Out of the Oven
- How To Get That Perfect Muffin Top
- High Heat is the Secret!
- PIN THIS RECIPE to yourDESSERT Boards and Remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!
- Pistachio Muffins Recipe
Pistachio Muffins
Pistachio flavor is a bit of a tricky thing to try and emulate when it comes to home baking.
Pistachio nuts have a huge amount of very unique flavor, but some of them can very easily get destroyed if it isn’t prepared properly.
Compounding that with the fact that getting the color just right can seem impossible makes pistachio muffins and other pistachio-flavored baked goods a tricky thing to make at home.
However, thanks to a few cheats, such as using pistachio pudding Jell-O mix, this recipe should be a piece of (pistachio) cake.
Pistachio Muffins Ingredients
Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.
• Vegetable oil
• Granulated sugar
• Large eggs
• Almond extract
• Pistachio pudding mix Jell-O
• Sour cream
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Milk
• Chopped pistachios
• All-purpose flour
Topping
• Coarse sanding sugar for topping
• Chopped pistachios
How To Make Pistachio Muffins
• In a large bowl, add the oil and sugar and stir
• Add the eggs and almond extract and beat lightly until evenly combined
• Add the pudding mix, baking powder, baking soda, sour cream, salt, and milk
• Gently stir with a spoon until just combined
• Add in the flour and gently fold until just combined – making sure to not over mix
• Add in the chopped pistachios and gently fold in
• Using a 12-cup muffin tin, add paper muffin liners
• Fill 3/4 of the way full with the batter
• Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with coarse sanding sugar and chopped pistachios
• Bake for 7 minutes at 425°F, then reduce the heat to 350°F and continue to bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through
• Remove the muffins from the oven and transfer the muffins to a cooling rack
How To Check Your Muffins For Doneness
One of the hardest parts about making muffins is the fact that they need to be checked super frequently to ensure that they don’t overcook.
Unlike cakes or any other larger baked goods, muffins are super small and can go from perfectly cooked in the middle to overcooked and dry in less than a minute.
The only real way to test for a muffin’s doneness is to use the old toothpick test – simply stick a toothpick into the center of the middle muffin on the tray and then pull it out.
If there is still goo or muffin batter on the stick, they aren’t done yet. If nothing but a couple of crumbs comes out with the stick, then the muffins are done!
When to Pull the Muffins Out of the Oven
Try and pull the muffins from the oven when they are just about to hit that perfect doneness; the toothpick should show just the merest quantity of batter on the very top of the toothpick.
The residual heat within the muffins should totally cook the remaining undercooked bits in the middle, resulting in a perfectly cooked muffin every time.
Just make sure that you are regulating the temperature of your muffins carefully, or you might end up with charred outsides and only almost cooked insides.
How To Get That Perfect Muffin Top
Another really tricky aspect of cooking muffins is trying to get that distinctive, attractive, and pleasing muffin top when making them at home.
For a lot of people, it seems like no matter what they do, the muffins they make come out flat and a little bit disheveled.
However, once you learn the secret, it isn’t really that difficult.
The secret to getting those perfectly formed and seemingly hand-crafted muffin tops is to hit the muffin batter with a really intense heat once it first hits the oven.
Then, once it has been in the high heat for a little bit, finish the baking at a lower temperature.
High Heat is the Secret!
The high heat causes water to evaporate within the batter really quickly, resulting in a lot of steam that helps to puff up the batter as it bakes, much more than if you just stuck it in the oven for a set amount of time.
Remember that every oven varies, and what is listed on your temperature dial might not be what are actually blasting your muffins with.
Make sure to keep a careful eye on them and pull them when they are just about done. Too much time in the oven can actually cause the muffins to begin to deflate, actually damaging their delicate muffin tops and ruining all that hard work you struggled to achieve.
Looking for more delicious Muffin recipes? Try these out:
Happy Cooking
Love,
Karlynn
PIN THIS RECIPE to your
DESSERT Boards and Remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!
Pistachio Muffins
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 10 minutes
- Course
- Dessert
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 12 muffins
- Calories
- 211
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
- one 3.4 ounce package instant Pistachio pudding mix
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup chopped pistachios
- 2 cups all purpose flour
Topping
- 1/4 cup coarse sanding sugar for topping (optional)
- 1/4 cup chopped pistachios unsalted (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425°
- In a large bowl add the oil and sugar. Stir.
- Add the eggs and almond extract. Beat lightly until evenly combined.
- Add the pudding mix, baking powder, baking soda, sour cream, salt and milk. Gently stir with a spoon until just combined.
- Add the flour and gently fold until just combined – do not over mix.
- Add in the chopped pistachios and gently fold in.
- Using a 12 cup muffin tin, add paper muffin liners. Fill 3/4 of the way full with the batter.
- Sprinkle tops of the muffins with coarse sanding sugar and chopped pistachios.
- Bake for 7 minutes at 425°F then reduce the heat to 350°F and continue to bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. (Tip: insert a toothpick in the center of the muffins to check for doneness. If the toothpick comes out clean the muffins are done.
- Remove the muffins from the oven and transfer the muffins to a cooling rack.
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Ginsburg Lynne says
How do you convert a muffin recipe into a mini muffin recipe?
LARRY says
ABSOLUTELY AWESOMENESS
Rhonda says
can these be adapted for low carb diet?
C Anderson says
Just want to ask , the pistachio pudding mix, is that instant or cook , not stated
Karlynn Johnston says
Instant!
Ginsburg Lynne says
Karlynn, how do you convert a regular muffin recipe into a mini muffin recipe?
Thanks Lynne
Ginsburg Lynne says
How do you convert a muffin recipe into a mini muffin recipe?