Delicious Tropical Muffins

Zesty, sweet, light and moist these flavour packed Tropical Muffins are so good. These muffins are made with banana, pineapple, orange, passionfruit pulp and coconut. These muffins freeze really well and are a delicious one bowl muffin recipe perfect for snacks or lunchboxes. 

These Tropical Muffins have been a long time in the making. But I think they have been worth the wait and I am FINALLY happy with them 🙌. These muffins are soft, light and super flavoursome. They are beautiful fragranced with orange and cinnamon and the pineapple adds delicious bursts of flavour. And I love the nutty toasted shredded coconut that top these.

This recipe uses a lot of fruits which come together beautifully in these tropical flavoured muffins. I opted for canned pineapple and passionfruit for these muffins as I find we always have leftover pineapple from the kid’s pizza nights and passionfruit can be harder to get out of season. But you could use fresh if you preferred.

You Will Need:

To make these Tropical Muffins you’ll need a mixture of pantry ingredients, refrigerated goods and fresh produce. You will find the quantities in the recipe card further down the page.

• Overripe Banana – the riper a banana, the sweeter it is. A tip for mashing the banana is to do this on a clean chopping board before adding to the bowl.
• Pineapple – I used canned pineapple chunks in these muffins which I diced roughly. The pineapple add the best pops of flavour when you bite into the muffin. You could use fresh pineapple though I did not test this variation.
• Passionfruit Pulp – I used canned Passionfruit Pulp. You can use fresh however you may want to add a touch more brown sugar to the recipe if you prefer a sweeter muffin. If you do not like the crunch of the seeds, feel free to strain these for an even softer muffin.
• Orange Juice and Zest – a fantastic source of Vitamin C, oranges add a delicious warmth to these Tropical Muffins. My first few tests did not have the orange and I really think these muffins really benefited from this flavour so don’t be tempted to leave it out.
• Greek yogurt – a staple ingredient I will always have on hand. It helps keeping baking moist and packs a protein punch. If you do not have Greek yogurt you can use natural yogurt, ricotta or sour cream. 
• Olive Oil – I use a low flavoured extra virgin olive oil in these pineapple muffins. You can use any low flavoured oil suitable for baking. You can also use melted butter. 
• Eggs – these add protein to this recipe and structure to the muffins. I use large eggs as standard in my recipes.
• Vanilla Extract – I use a quality extract as opposed to essence in my recipes. You can get this from most supermarkets. 
• Cinnamon – adds more flavour and spice to these Tropical Muffins. 
• Brown Sugar – I like dark brown sugar rather than light brown sugar, though both would work. This is a deep flavoured sugar with notes of caramel and toffee. You can substitute with honey but I preferred the sugar. I have also made these without any added sugar, but, honestly I loved the sugar added version.
• Self Raising Plain Flour – if you do not have self raising flour you can use plain flour and add in baking powder. To make self raising flour, mix two teaspoons of baking powder to each cup of plain flour.
• Desiccated Coconut – finely ground dried coconut and normally found in the baking section.I have also used coconut flakes which worked beautifully as well
• Shredded Coconut – I loved adding this ingredient to top these Tropical Muffins, but it’s totally optional. Shredded coconut is small thin strips of coconut and larger in size than desiccated coconut.

To make the Tropical Muffins

Preheat your oven to 175c and throughly grease a muffin tin. I recommend that you don’t use muffin tin liners with this recipe as they can stick a little. But if you do use liners, make sure you grease them.

In a large bowl whisk together the wet ingredients, brown sugar, cinnamon and fruit until smooth.

Add in the flour and desiccated coconut into the whisked ingredients and mix until just combined. The mixture will be wet and loose.

Add into the greased muffin tin, sprinkle with shredded coconut and bake for around 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes then remove the Tropical Muffins from the tin and place on a wire wrack.

 

Freezing the Tropical Pineapple Muffins

These Tropical Muffins freeze exceptionally well. Once baked cool the muffins completely, then add into a container or reusable ziplock bag. The muffins will freeze well for 2-3 months. To defrost take the muffin out of the freezer the night before and defrost in the fridge. You can defrost in the microwave.

You may also love these delicious recipes:

• These Tropical Breakfast Bars are a great no added sugar option and perfect for grab and go snacks. 
• And if you love muffins why not try these delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins are the ultimate comfort muffin, delicious served warm with salted butter.
• Or these Strawberry Sour Cream Muffins are always a winner! These muffins are smooth and creamy and are made with low added sugar. 
• You may also enjoy these Pear Blueberry and Ginger Muffins that are sweetened only with fruit.

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I hope you love these muffins as much as I do, and if you do please rate the recipe so that others can find my Tropical Muffins too! Also please share your pictures with me on Instagram or Facebook – I love to hear from you!

Happy baking, 
Bernadette x