Macadamia Nut Muffins

With an ample supply of macadamia nuts and too many cookies around the house, I opted for a breakfast item.  This muffin is lightly sweetened and contains no type of chocolate, so it is perfect with some butter and hot coffee or tea.  The nuts and extracts really come through in the flavor.  This recipe comes from the RSVP section of Bon Appetit, issued prior to 2005 and makes about 10-12 muffins. 

Macadamia Nut Muffins

Ingredients
3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts (if salted omit salt below)*
1/4 cup whipping cream
3 eggs
3/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plus 2 tbs bread flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease top edges of muffin cups in pan and then place paper liners inside.

Sift baking powder, flour and salt* in medium bowl and set aside. Then place butter in a large bowl and beat for 2 minutes until smooth and creamy.  Add brown sugar and continue to beat until all is blended.

Add the extracts and eggs with the butter mixture and blend all ingredients by beating with a wooden spoon .  Then fold in the dry ingredients.  Once the dry ingredients are completely mixed into the batter, add the whipping cream. Stir with the spoon until smooth.  Lastly, add the macadamia nuts and mix until distributed evenly in the batter.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin liners, filling 3/4 full. Smooth the surface of the batter with a wet knife.  As you can see in the above picture, these muffins do not rise very much.  Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.  Serve warm or at room temperature.