Avocado and Pistachio Muffins with Lime Glaze

See!? I told you I was going to be better at updating! Honestly, I was planning on updating yesterday when I made the Black and White Brownies from the Moosewood Dessert Cookbook but... they were terrible. God awful. I was so disappointed! I have never made a dud recipe from Moosewood before, but these brownies were sweet without being rich, and more than a bit chalky. The best part of them was the chocolate glaze: melt 1/3 c. semi sweet chips in a double boiler with 1/4 c. heavy cream... aaaaand there you go.

Anyway, BIG NEWS! I made up a recipe! And it isn't terrible! It needs tweaking, definitely, but I could probably fix the problems without even remaking the recipe to test... Here's the backstory: I love guacamole, but I have been making it so often that it's becoming mundane to me. There was one avocado left over, and about to turn, so I decided to google search "avocado bread" thinking that there might be something useful... no luck. I am not a huge fan of zucchini or banana breads, and that's about all I came up with (aka lots of spices that completely mask the true flavor of the produce). So then I searched avocado cake. Still, not much luck because I didn't have any buttermilk! Apparently, buttermilk is a staple in recipes where you bake with avocados... who knew!? So I decided to make my own recipe. I kid you not when I say that this was one of the most nerve-wrecking experiences of my life... There was a great possibility of my crashing and burning (literally). I decided to make the batter into muffins, because I only had one avocado.

The result? 4 mint-green (thank you camera phone for completely destroying the integrity of my muffin-color), medium-sized muffins that were good with the potential of being great. I have listed the recipe as I made it today, below. To see what I would definitely change about my recipe next time, see the notes section! Remember, this recipe only yields 4 muffins.

Audrey's Avocado and Pistachio Muffins with Lime Glaze

...aka SUPERGREEN MUFFINS

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp. unsalted butter, salted
• 1 medium sized avocado, mashed
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 c. salted pistachios, chopped coarsely
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1/4 c. powdered sugar

To Make:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cream together butter and sugar. Add mashed avocado and beat until smooth. Add egg, then dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Fold in pistachios.
• Bake in ungreased and unlined muffin cups, filled 3/4 of the way full, until peaks are browned (about 20 minutes). Let cool on cooling rack.
• Meanwhile, beat together lime juice, powdered sugar, and water as needed to make a glaze of medium thickness. Apply using a pastry crush to the cooled muffins.

Some Notes:

• Next time, I am going to add 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract to the batter. The muffins lacked dimension, and although the lime and pistachios helped, they were a little bland.
• Next time, I will increase the granulated sugar to a full cup. The muffins would have been much better had they been sweeter. As is, they are basically savory muffins.
• The muffins came out a little doughy in the center. Next time, I will increase cooking time by 2 or 3 minutes.
• Instead of thinning out the glaze with water, next time I will use more lime juice. Today, I only had the one lime half lying around.
• I might play around with substituting yogurt, ricotta cheese, or buttermilk for the butter. The muffins are naturally heavy because of the fats in the avocado, and I think they could use some lightness.
• I might also try adding lime juice to the actual batter to give it some tang.