Pistachio Muffins
Perfectly light and fluffy Pistachio Muffins made with just a few store cupboard ingredients and a sprinkling of chopped pistachio nuts, laced with a vanilla sugar syrup and pistachio topping.
Simple, no-hassle muffin recipes are the best….imho.
This pistachio muffin recipe is about as easy as it gets. It involves just a handful of ingredients; the dry ingredients are sifted together, the wet ingredients are mixed together, and then both are combined. The resulting pistachio muffins are tasty, soft and packed with pistachio pieces.
Baking at its simplest!
The recipe can easily be adapted for various muffins; simply swap out the pistachios for a filling of your choice. See below for suggestions.
And you may also like to give my ever-popular Banana Rhubarb Muffin a whirl!
There is something very satisfying about snapping open a pistachio shell and popping out its gnarly nutty contents, all luminous green and deep purple. And of course, tasting a few on the way, well, who can resist? You can use normal supermarket pistachio nuts for these pistachio muffins; a 150-gram bag is enough.
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This recipe makes TASTY and HEALTHY Pistachio Muffins for the following reasons...
Pistachio nuts✔️
Pistachios are PACKED with goodness!
They are full of antioxidants, fibre, protein, lower in calories than your average nut and well, read this if you want to know more, but it's safe to say they are pretty amazing and a whole 150-gram medium pack are used in this pistachio muffin recipe.
Sunflower oil instead of butter✔️
Sunflower oil contains polyunsaturated fat, which is far healthier than butter.
The oil also gives flavour and that perfect soft muffin texture.
Low sugar content in the muffins✔️
Omit the sugary topping to make the muffins extra healthy, or spread a little runny honey instead.
Made with the goodness of lots of milk✔️
A third of a pint no less!
Only 1 egg is used✔️
Unlike cakes, muffins are made with minimal amounts of egg.
Plus also in their favour...
Just a few store cupboard ingredients are required✔️
Incredibly easy (literally 2 steps to make, then bake!)✔️
They keep really well thanks to the oil content ✔️
Ingredients
See recipe card for quantities.
- Plain (all-purpose) flour
- Egg
- Pistachios
- Sunflower oil
- Whole milk
- Golden caster (superfine) sugar
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
Instructions
Brief instructions are noted below; however, please see the Recipe Card for more details.
Pistachio Muffins
Sift together your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Lightly beat together your egg, oil, milk and vanilla bean paste
Tip your wet mixture into your dry mixture and briefly fold together, stopping as soon as the flour has all been mixed in.
Mix in your chopped pistachio nuts, just until equally dispersed.
Place equal amounts of the pistachio muffin batter into 12 muffin cases.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden on top, and the muffins bounce back when pressed down a little.
Vanilla and Pistachio Muffin Topping
Whilst your pistachio muffins are baking, heat your water and golden caster (superfine) sugar together. Simmer for 1-2 minutes and then add your vanilla bean paste and leave to cool and thicken.
As soon as your muffins come out of the oven, use a pastry brush to paint on the sugar syrup and then sprinkle over finely chopped pistachios. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.
Substitutions
If you don't have all of the ingredients listed for these Pistachio Muffins, you can swap them out for the following:
Plain (all-purpose) flour - can be swapped with self-raising flour, if so, only add 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Whole milk - can be replaced with semi-skimmed milk or natural plain yoghurt, sour cream or buttermilk, or a mixture of all.
Sunflower oil - you can replace it with vegetable or olive oil.
Golden caster (superfine) sugar - can be replaced with white caster (superfine) sugar.
Variations
This Pistachio Muffin recipe can be used as the base recipe for any muffins.
White chocolate and Raspberry muffins: replace the pistachios with 100 grams (1 Cup) of fresh or frozen raspberries and 100 grams (1 Cup) of white chocolate chopped into small chunks.
Chocolate muffins: take out 30 grams of your flour and replace it with 50 grams (3 tablespoons) of cooking cocoa powder, and replace the milk with Greek natural yoghurt. Throw in 100 grams (1 Cup) of dark chocolate chips, and you have perfect chocolate muffins.
Savoury vegetable muffins: peel and grate 250 grams of either carrot, parsnip, courgette or beetroot and then spread out on a piece of kitchen paper to soak up the excess water. Mix in instead of your pistachios.
Storage
As these muffins are made with oil, they will keep really well for at least a week in an airtight container at room temperature.
Once completely cool, Pistachio muffins can be frozen in an airtight container or wrapped individually in cling film (plastic wrap). Consume within 3 months.
Top tips for perfect Pistachio Muffins
In fact, these are Top Tips for ANY muffins...
- Sift your dry ingredients to add air.
- Rub out any lumps of sugar that remain.
- Do not over-mix, honestly, this is critical; ensure all of your flour is dispersed, then stop. Overworked muffin batter, whereby the gluten in the flour becomes elastic, will result in tough-textured muffins which will be full of holes.
- Lumps and bumps are good. Don't worry if your muffin batter is lumpy; that's how it should be. It does kind of go against the grain to leave the batter this way, but trust me, it produces the best muffins.
- Use in-date baking powder; muffins rely heavily on baking powder to lift them up. Only fresh baking powder is guaranteed to be up to the job.
- Avoid opening the oven door whilst your muffins bake, otherwise the drop in temperature will see them sag.
- Heat your sugar syrup gradually to let the sugar gradually dissolve before simmering.
FAQ
Perfect muffins should have a soft and fluffy interior, a domed, golden and soft top with some gentle cracks running over it.
Linked Recipes
Some other muffin and cupcake recipes on Ella's Better Bakes that you may like to try...
These Banana Rhubarb Muffins are hugely popular all year round.
Another popular recipe is these Coffee and Walnut Cupcakes.
Like Biscoff? You'll love these Biscoff Cakes.
📖 Recipe
Pistachio Muffins
Here's what you'll need...
- muffin cases or you can grease the muffin tin cavaties
- Large spoon for fork
- Small saucepan
Ingredients you'll need...
- 250 g Plain (all-purpose) flour (1 Cup + 13 level tablespoons)
- 100 g Golden caster sugar (7 level tablespoons)
- 3 teaspoon Baking powder level
- ¼ teaspoon Fine salt
- Large egg
- 200 ml Full-fat milk (13 tablespoons)
- 100 ml Sunflower oil (7 tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 50 g Pistachio nuts (a 150 gram medium sized bag is enough) shelled weight - chopped into small pieces (½ Cup when chopped)
Pistachio Topping
- 3 tablespoon Water
- 3 tablespoon Golden caster sugar
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 25 g Pistachio nuts shelled weight - chopped finely - (¼ Cup when chopped
Here's what we do...
Pistachio Muffins
- Heat your oven to 170°C Fan/190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.
- Place your muffin cases into your muffin tin.
- Sift your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together into your large mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, lightly beat together your egg, milk, oil and vanilla bean paste and then tip into your flour mixture.
- Gently fold the wet mixture into the flour, using a large metal spoon or fork, stop as soon as the flour has disappeared as overmixing is a common failure of muffins. 10-15 folds should be enough.
- Fold in your chopped pistachio nuts just long enough to ensure they are equally mixed in.
- Fill your 12 muffin cases equally, mine took about 57 grams each, but you can just guess the weight, as long as they look roughly the same that's fine.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen and golden. The muffins should bounce back up when pressed. Whilst they are baking make your sugar syrup topping.
Pistachio topping
- Add your water and sugar to your small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
- Turn up the heat and simmer for a 1-2 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and then mix in your vanilla bean paste set aside to cool and thicken.
- As soon as your muffins come out of the oven paint over your sugar syrup using your pastry brush and then immediately sprinkle over your finely chopped pistachios, they will stick to the top of the muffin as it cools.
- Place the muffins on your cooling rack to continue to cool.
Dairy is not all that wonderful for you. The calcium is locked up as calcium lactate. I would make this using a plant-based milk substitute and it would be more healthy.