Three words: roasted salted pistachios.
Completely wonderful all on their own — they transform sweet treats with their salty, crunchy goodness. I’ve always been one to add just a bit more salt to baked goods and other sweets than the average recipe calls for. I’m not a huge fan of anything cloyingly sweet (it hurts my teeth!), and I love the interplay between sweet and savory that salt brings to the table — resulting in wonderfully balanced in flavors.
Tart red raspberries burst with summery brightness, and crunchy pistachios play very well in the light, airy muffin batter.
Yup, this is pretty much my favorite muffin, or even dare I say baked thing, that I’ve ever made. 🙂
And while we’re eating our raspberry pistachio muffins and sipping coffee this morning, let’s chat shall we?
K and I are getting married in less than 50 days. Aaah! I feel like I should be frantically pouring over magazines and Pinterest for all the ideas, fretting over flower choices and who to seat where. But everything magically fell into place when we started planning last fall, and now I find myself without too much to do but wait. Something to know about me — I always have to be doing something, to feel busy and productive. To check things off my list (one of the best feelings in the world). Venue, photographer, trolley, wine tour, dinner reservations, hotel block, invites. Check check check! And of course my dress — I bought one of the very first I tried on — which I can’t wait for you (and K 😉 ) to see. There are a few odds and ends to wrap up — like writing our vows! — but those things will come in time. I feel like I should be feeling frantic, but I’m not. For now, I’m actually feeling very content to wait.
And eat these muffins. Right now. Nom nom nom.
Tips for making the most amazing whole wheat muffins ever:
- Over mixing is your enemy! The act of mixing batter and kneading dough activates the glutens in the flour, making them chewier, denser. To encourage your wheat muffins to be lighter and airier, go easy on the mixing. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet by hand until just combined. A few lumps are your friend.
- Spray your paper liners. For some reason, and maybe it’s just me, but whole wheat muffins tend to stick to paper liners. Avoid bits of paper stuck to your delicious muffins by spritzing each paper liner with a bit of nonstick spray. Or forgoing the paper liners all together and spraying the muffin tins. I do find that the muffins rise better in paper liners, though.
- Preheat the oven. Okay, so this one should be a given. But I get a little impatient at times, and have been known to throw things into the oven before their time. While this is okay for veggies and the like, it’s a no-no in baking. Make sure your oven is fully pre-heated before bringing your lovely pan of muffin batter into the mix.
If you do those three little things, you’ll be the muffin master in no time. And believe me, you need these muffins in your life. Portable breakfast? Check. Perfectly portioned snack? Packed with fiber and healthy fats?? Check check.
Really, any kind of frozen berry folded into whole wheat muffin batter is a win in my book. If you’ve got blueberries, strawberries, blackberries or fruit of any kind, you’ll still have a winner!
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp ground flax seed meal
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- pinch of salt
- ¾ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 pint raspberries, halved and frozen
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup roasted salted pistachios, finely chopped
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners. Spray each liner lightly with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Add all of the dry ingredients for the muffins to a large mixing bowl, except for the raspberries. Mix gently to combine.
- In another mixing bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients for the muffins. Create a crater in the center of the dry mixture. Pour the wet ingredients into the crater and slowly fold together by hand until just combined. A few lumps are okay. Set aside. (We'll get to the raspberries in a minute.)
- In a small bowl, combine all of the crumble ingredients and set aside.
- Pour the frozen raspberry halves into the muffin batter and gently fold to incorporate evenly. The batter will likely be a bit sticky thick -- that's okay!
- Divide the muffin batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, gently spreading out to fill the liners. Divide the crumble topping evenly overtop of each muffin cup and gently press into the batter.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean of muffin batter (albeit a bit raspberry red).
- Remove from the muffin tin to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.
What a tasty and creative muffin. I found this recipe on fridgg.com and think that it’s a great combination. I haven’t had pistachios in years.
Hey thanks, Neeli! I hadn’t had pistachios in what seems like forever either, and thought it was time to change that 🙂
I meant to say tasty looking recipe.
Hi. I have a few questions. I have a pint of fresh strawberries I want to use. Why do I need to freeze them, first? And, can I use white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour, to make the muffins lighter?
Hey Susan, I prefer to use frozen fruit so that it holds up better to mixing in the batter. Fresh fruit will likely break up and stain the batter, though the muffins will still be delicious. And yes, you can use white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour if you prefer!
Thanks, Jaenell. I am going to make them, today, to share with others. I was concerned about the strawberries, because that is one berry that I find does not freeze well. They end up really mushy when defrosted, but I am not sure if that matters in something baked.
That’s great, Susan! The raspberries also softened significantly when baked in this recipe — but I found the difference in texture (with little pockets of raspberry flavor) to be really great. Let me know how yours turn out! 🙂
These muffins turned out great! My husband is not much for baked goods, but he can’t stop talking about how delicious these muffins are! Great combination of tart, wholesome, with a crunchy sweet crumble, and the pistachios make them so unique. Thanks for the creative, yummy recipe!
Hi there!! These sound amazing. I was just wondering if these are 21 day fix approved and if so what the container break downs would be?
Thank you