Baklava Muffins

So the Baklava Muffins won the poll. They had an early jump, but the last day they were neck-on-neck with the Boston Cream Pie. This recipe is from Nigella Lawson and she calls them "gooey, crunchy and soft", that they sure are! These are the gooeyist muffins I have ever baked. They almost seemed not fully baked. But I can't deny that they are delicious. They make a very sweet breakfast. I made 12 muffins, half of them without the walnuts. I found out that the ones without the walnuts were more soft and gooeyer, and that the filling dropped to the bottom, so I prefer them with the walnuts.

Ingredients for muffins:
- 1 cup + 7 tablespoons all-purpose-flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk (or 3/4 cup plain yogurt and 1/3 cup low-fat milk)

Ingredients for filling:
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I suggest fresh walnuts, ones that are still in a shell, they taste much better)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted

Ingredients for topping: (I omitted this)
- 1/2 cup honey

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 400F/200F. (I think this is a bit too hard, so I preheated it to 175C/350F)
- Mix all the filling ingredients together in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar.
- In a measuring cup, whisk the egg, melted butter and buttermilk.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the liquid and mix lightly and gently, remembering to keep it bumpy rather than going all-out for smooth: anything more than the gentlest handling makes for heavy muffins.
- Fill the muffin cups one-third full. (maybe a little bit more because the filling will drop to the bottom when baking)
- Add a scant tablespoon of filling (a full teaspoon is much better)
- Then cover with more muffin mixture until two-thirds full.
- Sprinkle any remaining filling on top of the muffins.
- Bake for 15 minutes, by which time they should be golden brown and ready.
- Put the mufins, still in their paper cups, onto a rack and drizzle with honey. You may find it easier to warm the honey a little before pouring.


The chopped walnuts, fun to do.

The baklava filling.

The 4 layers that went into the oven.

Breakfast is ready!

Yum! Everyone loved them.