Walnut Muffins with Coffee Glaze

With more walnuts than flour, these muffins are strictly for walnut lovers. I wasn't too sure about this recipe as I was mixing the batter together, but it ended up being perfectly fine. I cut the glaze down to only 1/3 of the original due to being low on powdered sugar and think that's a perfectly fine amount for the recipe. I ended up using pre-chopped walnuts to save myself some work (and they come in convenient 100g bags!). Note this recipe only makes 6 muffins.

Walnut Muffins with Coffee Glaze (from The Harried Cook, originally Muffins Galore)

Ingredients
muffins
100g chopped walnuts
75g butter
75g sugar
3 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp vanilla
75g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

1. In a heavy-based saucepan, melt the butter, stirring it often. The butter will froth a lot. After a little while, the frothing will stop, and the butter will start turning darker. Soon you will notice there are tiny brown specks in the butter. Once the butter reaches this point, take it off the heat. You should be able to smell the nutty aroma of the brown butter. It should not smell burn.
2. Stir in the sugar while the butter is still hot. Set aside to cool.
3. In the meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir the flour and baking powder together. Stir the walnuts into the flour and set aside.
4. Add the egg yolks and vanilla into the still warm butter-sugar mixture.
5. Stir in the walnut, flour and baking powder mixture.
6. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the walnut batter.
7. The final batter will be quite thick, but soft and smooth.
8. Divide the batter into a muffin tray (6 muffins), and bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden and firm to the touch.
9. Allow them to cool in the tray for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
10. Spread over the coffee glaze, and garnish with a walnut half.


Coffee Glaze
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp instant coffee
1/2 tsp butter, softened
50g powdered sugar

1. Heat the milk and coffee together until the coffee has completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
2. Add the butter, and stir until the butter has melted.
3. Add the sugar and stir until you have a smooth glaze.