Tomatillo Cupcakes/Muffins*

Another week, another post, another theme. This week: using typically savory ingredients in sweet dishes.

I think it's interesting that certain foods get to be associated with savory (read: main dishes, appetizers, etc.) or sweet (read: dessert) dishes, often for essentially arbitrary and often reasons largely stemming from local traditions. Avocados, for instance, are used by North Americans in guacamole and salads/sandwiches, but in Vietnam they make sweet (and delicious!) smoothies from them. There are lots of other examples.

It can be fun, though, to play with these expectations and use ingredients in different ways. This is especially fun in desserts. That's the idea behind these cupcakes, which highlight the versatility of the tomatillo.

Tomatillos are most commonly used in tangy salsa verde, but a couple of things convinced me they'd make an interesting cupcake. First, I once made a molten chocolate cake (from a recipe I really thought I had found on Epicurious, but I couldn't find it to link) served with a tomatillo-vanilla sauce. Second, I heard recently that green tomatoes (which I figure are sort of like tomatillos) could be substituted for apples in baking recipes.

So…this week's experiment was adapted the Apple-Cardamom cupcake recipe at Vanilla Garlic (a great source for cupcake recipes). Here's the recipe I used:

Tomatillo Cupcakes
Makes 18 cupcakes / 350F oven

3 cups chopped tomatillos
1.5 cups of sugar
1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 egg whites
2.25 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

What to do:

1) Chop tomatillos and combine them with the sugar and let them macerate for one hour. Next add the oil, vanilla and stir.

2) Preheat over to 350 degrees F (165 C).

3) Slightly beat egg whites just until a light foam appears. Combine them with the oil and apple mixture.

4) Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices together. Stir into the apple mixture, and then place into cupcake papers about 3/4ths full.

5) Bake for 15 minutes undisturbed, then rotate the pan and cook for another 3-7 minutes, testing with a toothpick for doneness. Careful, as if the toothpick goes into an apple it will not come out clean, but cupcake may be done.



* For the purposes of this blog from now on, cupcakes and muffins are distinguished only by the presence of icing. Cupcakes have icing. Muffins do not.