Mango "Colada" Muffins

We were pretty lucky this season. At least in New York, towards the tristate area, since that is the only area of the country that I can speak of with any sort of authority and credibility.  We had quite a lovely winter.  I'm serious.  The weather was surprisingly warm (I mean, "warm"), and snowfall?  Non-existant. Maybe this global warming thing isn't so bad...okok, I'm kidding. Let's not get into the whole global warming things right now.  It's too political and to be frank, I am not the least bit interested in discussing politics at 9 am on a Friday morning...or most of the time for that matter, to be perfectly honest.  I just hate having to trudge around the Columbia campus and New York City for the most part when the ground is covered in a nasty, gray blanket of "wintery-mix"...you know, that blend of sleet and snow and rain that just ends up getting super dirty on the ground...ew.  Just ew.  HOWEVER...we didn't have any of that at all this winter! Save for that really random snowfall we got on Halloween weekend, New York City was completely devoid from winter snow.  That's my kind of winter!

Manco "Colada" muffins.  I put "colada" in quotes because there's no alcohol in these muffins, which only makes sense I think.  Booze is totally alright in cupcakes, but in muffins?  Nah, that just sounds kinda strange to me I think.  But anyway.  I actually made these muffins a couple of weeks ago, while I was still at home during winter break, obviously in denial that it was actually still "winter," and I wanted to make something that reminded me of spring or even better, of summer!  Sounds like a totally legit reason to bake up some mango "colada" muffins in the middle of January right?  There was also the fact that my mom came home one day with a giant cardboard box containing something like...ten mangos.  

"Surprise! Here you go, make something with mangos!" 

"Uhhh, sure mom, ok!"  

I had never had a muffin with mango in it, but I figured that it should be good, and would be no different than making any other sort of muffin with a fruit purée.  These were so good!  Mango, coconut milk, and a banana get swirled around in the blender for a bit with other essential muffin ingredients (like eggs) and give the muffins a nice tropical and fruity flavor, and adding in a little more diced mango and sweet shredded coconut gives the mangos a very lovely texture.  I love coconut in recipes, it's such a great and easy way to make any recipe resemble and taste "tropical."  It's just great!

The muffins come together very easily, just like any good muffin recipe should.  This one is particularly nice because all the wet ingredients get combined in the blender before they are added to the dry ingredients, after which the shredded coconut and diced mango are added in.  I am not really sure how much extra mango I put in from what is specified in the original recipe; the recipe calls for 2/3 cup chopped mango, and I still had some extra mango remaning from the one that I had cut up, so I just threw that extra bit into the batter, which turned out fine.  You can also just eat whatever mango is left plain....I might just end up doing that the next time I make these...I don't know.  Both seem like good options to me!

These muffins are lovely and tropical-inspired.  Make them now for a small taste of the spring and summer days that are to come...because they really are coming soon,  we're almost at the end of the season, I can feel it!!! HOORAY!!!

Mango "Colada" Muffins

adapted from How Sweet it Is

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large, ripe banana, mashed
2/3 cup chopped mango
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup shredded coconut

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F and position a rack in the middle of the oven.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners. 

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda into a bowl, and set aside.  In a food processor or blender, combine the butter, egg, vanilla, banana, mango, and coconut milk.  Mix or pulse together until the ingredients are completely combined. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir to combine.  

I had some leftover mango from the large one that I cut up.  I'm not sure how much it measured, but I decided to throw the leftover diced mango into the batter (a little extra mango couldn't hurt!)  At this point, add in the shredded coconut.  Mix everything until just incorporated.

With an ice cream scoop, divide the muffin batter evenly among all the muffin wells. Bake in the oven until the muffin tops are light golden brown in color, about 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven, and allow to cool slightly in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.