Apricot Pistachio Matcha Muffins #MuffinMonday

Chunks of dried apricots and chopped pistachios flavor these delicate green tea muffins for fruit and nut muffins with a twist!

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Since I bake muffins many times a month (I think our family's Friday Night Pizza Night pizzas are the only items I fix more consistently) I like to play around with themes. I was going for a festive St Patrick's Day muffin here--naturally green colored with chunks of orange to echo the Irish flag. Clearly, I'm not Irish, but I'm happy to eat and drink and celebrate anyway! While I admit I failed with the color, the flavor of these muffins makes them worthy of a Muffin Monday post.

After my success with naturally coloring pizza dough green with spinach, and naturally colored green, gold, and purple braided Mardi Gras bread, I figured green muffins would be a cinch. However, something about the quick nature of muffin batter does not lend itself to the deeper colors, I'm afraid. Much like my Beet Horseradish Muffins, the batter color bakes out into an orange muffin with a tinge of my goal color--green. But hey! No artificial dyes in these muffins so there's something to hang your . . . apron . . . on!

Robert Barker remains hungrily hopeful that I'll have a catastrophic accident on the way to the oven.

If not a vibrant green color, what do these muffins have to offer? Simple--they are a refreshing fruit-and-nut muffin, great for breakfast or a snack. We prefer them served warm with plenty of butter. They're lightly sweet, with a nice bit of crunch from the pistachios and a tender bite from the apricots.  They're unexpected--I've been craving raisin walnut bread and these muffins are a faster way t get that fruit/nut flavor while my bread dough was rising . . . and rising . . . and rising. [Yes, I baked a loaf of apricot walnut cinnamon chip swirl bread while also making these muffins. I need to work on my swirling technique, but boy does the toast hit the spot!]

If you'd like to make a non-traditional nod to St Patrick's Day, give these a shot. After all, you can't eat corned beef and cabbage for breakfast . . . or can you? I went there with these Corned Beef Hash Waffles, so I suppose you can.

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Apricot Pistachio Matcha Muffins (makes 1 dozen)

Ingredients

• ¾ cup (6 fl ounces) buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon matcha powder
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (4¼ ounces by weight) unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 cup (4 ounces by weight) whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt (I use kosher)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup chopped pistachios (I used roasted & salted ones)
• 1 cup chopped dried apricots (it's OK if samples have been removed for testing)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12 well muffin pan with paper liners for easiest clean up, though these didn't stick to the papers so I suspect just spraying the pan would also work.
2. In a medium bowl dump in buttermilk, matcha powder, egg, oil, and sugar.
3. In a large bowl dump in flours, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Whisk dry ingredients together, then use that whisk to combine the wet team thoroughly.
4. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flours and stir briefly.
5. Dump the pistachios and apricot pieces into the bowl, and stir until just combined.
6. Scoop into the prepared pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, then let cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack. 
7. Serve warm with butter (or reheat and spread with butter if enjoying these a day later).

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page, and here's the list of participants for this month!

• Apricot Pistachio Matcha Muffins by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cherry Chocolate Muffins by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Garlic Onion Muffins by Passion Kneaded
• Muffins Florentine by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Strawberry Yogurt Muffins by Food Lust People Love