Rangpur lime and almond muffins and a grumpy baker

I must be honest: these muffins did not get the best of me while I was making them – little old grumpy me kept thinking “muffins are supposed to be practical and quick to make!”, and “with these many steps I could be making a cake!”. Yes, I know, not very civilized of me, but it IS a fussy recipe and there ARE too many steps and too many ingredients. But in the end the result was so good I had to let it all go and share the recipe with you, especially because less than 30 minutes after the muffins had been placed in the oven I was biting into one of them already, which is something I would not be able to do with a cake. :D

The original recipe called for lemons, but I decided to use the super fragrant rangpur limes I had around instead.

Rangpur lime and almond muffins
slightly adapted from one of my latest purchases

Topping:
½ cup (55g) sliced almonds
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon whole milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Muffins:
1 ¼ cups + 1 tablespoon (185g) all purpose flour
1/3 cup (46g) confectioners’ sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
2 ½ tablespoons whole milk
1 ½ tablespoons heavy cream
finely grated zest of 1 rangpur lime
1 tablespoon rangpur lime juice
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (75g) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (36g) sliced almonds, toasted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; butter a muffin pan with twelve 1/3 cup (80ml) capacity muffin cups – you’ll use 10 of the 12 holes.
Make the topping: in a small bowl, mix together the almonds, sugar, milk and vanilla. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, confectioners’ sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, rangpur lime juice and zest and vanilla.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar and almonds on medium speed for 1 minute. On low speed, slowly drizzle the liquid ingredients into the bowl – the mixture will look lumpy. By hand, quickly fold in the flour in 3 additions but do not overmix.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, filling each cavity 2/3 of its capacity. Place spoonfuls of the topping on the top of each muffin. Before baking, fill the empty cavities halfway up with water.
Bake until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.
Let cool in the pan over a wire rack for about 7 minutes then carefully unmold and place on the rack to cool.

Makes 10