Stollen Muffins

I often get magazines from the library - we're usually only about a month behind and, well, they're free. Sometimes you find they've been tampered with - particularly with Food Network magazine, which comes with a removable booklet with 50 variations on some theme. But luckily for a recent holiday issue, the booklet was still attached - with fifty delicious muffin recipes. First up: Stollen Muffins.

I was excited about these because I really wanted to use the baking marzipan I found in a German shop on Roncesvalles. I've got a Swedish baking cookbook which is full of recipes that include almond paste, so I grabbed some when I finally found some. I figured this was an easy way to try it out. So I started by beating 1/3 cup of marzipan with 3/4 cup butter with 2/3 cup sugar.



This was actually more difficult than I had thought - the marzipan was quite hard, and it didn't really incorporate very well. It was definitely still in chunks. Oh well. After further beating in 2 eggs and 1 tsp each vanilla and almond extract, I mixed the dry ingredients in another bowl: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. The dry ingredients were then mixed into the butter, alternating with 1/3 cup milk. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

For a finishing touch, the muffins were brushed with melted butter and dusted with icing sugar. They were very dense, sweet, and almondy - but also surprisingly dry for something with tons of butter in it. But good! Just used to my oil-based cupcakes, I guess. Definitely not the healthy muffins I usually make. Like a dense pound cake. After looking at the Swedish recipes again, it seems marzipan is usually grated into batters - it is quite hard, no wonder I couldn't beat it into soft butter! It just meant you got a nice chunk of almond goodness in some bites. The good news is there is a chocolate/British candy store that carries the same marzipan, so I can try some Swedish recipes next time. Funny how this recipe was clearly based on German stollen but without the fruit or nuts...