I have been searching for pandan extract for a while now, and so my friend picked up a couple of bottles for me on her trip to a small, neighbourhood Indonesian grocery store. Like ube, pandan is a popular flavour in Southeast Asian and South Asian desserts, and I would say it is trendy right now.
Pandan is a tropical plant with fragrant leaves. The juice from the leaves is naturally green, and so it is often used as a natural food colouring.
For this muffin recipe, the pandan extract provides a beautiful, bright green colour and a subtle, sweet nutty-coconuty flavour. Canned coconut milk bumps up the flavour notes some more. The recipe calls for part whole wheat flour and part cake flour – to provide some lightness to counter the heavier whole wheat flour – but if you do not have these, you can use all-purpose flour instead.
A note about the liners – use ones made out of parchment paper to eliminate sticking. The muffins do not stick to parchment liners like they often do with paper ones.
If you give this recipe a try, tag me on Instagram at @takeontreats and #takeontreats.
Pandan Coconut Muffins
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (120 g) whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup (60 g) cake flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pandan extract
- 1 egg
- 150 mL cool water
- 90 mL canned coconut milk
- 70 mL vegetable/canola oil
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Line muffin tins with parchment paper cup liners.
- In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients but the flours.
- Add the flours and mix until combined.
- Divide the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups.
- Bake for 23-28 minutes until slightly golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of days, for a week in the fridge or in the freezer for several months.
