Wattleseed Muffins

I bought some ground wattleseed from Herbie's Spices not too long ago, but it's been sitting unloved in my pantry because I didn't know what to do with it. While browsing around, I found this recipe on Milk and Cookies and decided to give it a try.

According to Wikipedia, wattleseed (seeds from this species of Australian native acacia) is becoming quite popular because of its high nutritional content, hardiness, availability, low GI and low toxicity. I think it might also have something to do with the fact it tastes a bit like coffee and a bit like chocolate but then again like something completely different. It blends well with both coffee and chocolate too, by the way.

While checking my wattleseed facts, I found a recipe for Chocolate Wattleseed Biscuits. I think that will be my next wattleseed recipe.

JenJen's recipe was very easy to make. I omitted the dates because I don't like them. I also didn't have any muscovardo sugar, so I substituted brown sugar with a tiny little bit of molasses. I made full sized muffins, but I did have trouble with them rising. I don't think I creamed the butter and sugar well enough and I may have been a bit heavy handed when mixing in the flour. Both of the batches I made were a little leaden. They still tasted good, they were just heavy.

The muffins tasted amazing. They were beautifully flavoured, a little sweet but not too much. The wattleseed added a little crunch too. The molasses/maple syrup gave a nice depth. I took them to work for morning tea and everyone enjoyed them. Thanks very much Jen for posting such a wonderful recipe!

Wattleseed Muffins
From Milk and Cookies.

Note: I halved the recipe both times I tried it, but I will post the full measurements here. The halved recipe made 6 full sized muffins.

1 1/4 cup plain flour
1 tbs ground wattleseed
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed light muscovado sugar (I used brown sugar with a touch of molasses added)
2 tbs maple syrup
1 egg
1 cup dates (I omitted these)

Preheat oven to 170˚C. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.

In a bowl sift flour, wattleseed, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and maple syrup and mix to combine; the mixture may look a little curdled at this stage but this is fine.

Fold in the flour mixture until just combined.

Spoon about 2 teaspoons of the batter into the prepared muffin tray, careful not to over fill the cases. Only fill them about ¾ of the way.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until the muffin tops are golden brown.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a tray.