Anise & Almond Muffins, and what happened while I was making them…

So I saw Elena of Experiments had a new food event called Muffin Monday, and I thought ‘Oh how fun! I do love a good muffin.’ So I figured, I should whip up some muffins and participate, but what sort of flavor combination for a muffin could I come up with? That’s when I thought of the anisette toast (biscotti) that I often make around Christmas time. Anise and almonds, superb. So that was my flavoring inspiration for my muffins.

Now, what happened while I was making these lovely little muffins? Well, I got a phone call, a phone call that I have been waiting for and hoping against hope that it would be a good news phone call. And I am happy to say, I AM ECSTATIC!!! The phone call was from Honda, and the good news is a job offer! YEAH! So in June, after I graduate, I shall be employed as an engineer in the engine research group at Honda! Oh, I am so happy!

So there I was just making my muffins, ho-hum. And then, all of the sudden, I have a career lined up; I think these muffins shall become very memorable muffins for me now.

I doubled the recipe, and made a total of 34 muffins, so I could bring them to work tomorrow morning. These muffins are lower in fat than some other recipes you might find (low fat yogurt, low fat milk, a little less oil). I got some of the basic measurements from a yogurt muffin employing recipe from the Mr. Breakfast website (he’s got all sorts of breakfast-y recipes). I don’t happen to have anise powder, so I took whole star anise and ground it up in my little food processor with a ¼ cup of the sugar. So without further ado, the Anise & Almond muffins:

Anise & Almond muffins

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line muffin tins with muffin papers, or grease and flour your muffin tins (I used 17 muffin cups, however, if you have larger muffin tins, you might only get 12 muffins out of it).

Sift together in a large mixing bowl:
2 cups flour
1 Tbl baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

In a separate bowl mix:
¾ cup plain low fat yogurt
½ cup low fat milk
6 Tbl oil
1 tsp anise extract or 1 Tbl anisette
1 tsp anise powder
1 egg

Mix the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture (make sure not to over beat it, you just want everything incorporated) Then fold in:

1 cup toasted almonds

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins (again, I got 17 muffins out of this). Sprinkle muffins with extra toasted almonds. Bake muffins at 400°F for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops are golden and when you insert a toothpick it comes out clean. Let muffins cool, and enjoy. As far as jelly/jam recommendations go, I bet an apricot or peach jam would be good with these muffins.