Durian Muffins

Yesterday, I was a selfish and delinquent wife. Knowing full well my hubby's abhorrence for anything to do with durians (I have previously posted on this most un-Singapore-like behaviour), I nevertheless brought durians (packed into styrofoam boxes and shrink-wrapped) into his car and our home. And all because I had this great itch to bake durian muffins! What can I say, sometimes a cook has to do unpopular stuff to further culinary boundaries... sigh... I can just hear hubby in the background saying 'crap'!

Naturally, I had lots of fun separating the durian pulp from the seeds, and which durian lover can resist licking her fingers at the end of such session. Baking the muffins created wonderful aromas redolent of durians in the kitchen (which hubby naturally differs in opinion). Luckily, baking time is less than half an hour and with the help of a good exhaust system and natural night breezes, the aromas dissipated within an hour or two.


Picture of muffin includes some durian fruit and a split open muffin, showing small bits of yellow fruit interspersed within. This was my first attempt at durian muffins and I loved the wonderful soft texture, taste and fragrance of the muffin, especially fresh from the oven. My recipe below is actually adapted from a banana muffin recipe, replacing the banana with durian.

• sift 250g plain flour together with 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• cream 150g sugar with 125g butter until pale and creamy, and beat in 2 eggs - one at a time
• add 250g to 300g durian pulp(flesh) into creamed mixture (I used the D24 durians which are sweet with a slight bitterness, and extremely creamy in texture) together with between 3/4 cup to 1 cup of milk (check consistency before adding the last 1/4 cup, as it depends on how creamy or wet your durian pulp is) and mix well
• fold the sifted ingredients into the durian mixture
• fill muffin cases and bake immediately in preheated 190C oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown
• recipe makes 12 medium-sized muffins

In case you're wondering, I didn't finish all 12 muffins myself and my durian cohorts-colleagues had 'mouth fortune', transliterated from the Mandarin phrase 'kou fu', a colloquial phrase used for one who is lucky to be offered good food or a feast.