December 3, 2007: Wattleseed and date muffins

It has been four shameful months since I bought a packet of ground wattleseed in Tasmania, keen to try its coffee and hazelnut aroma. Since then it's been sitting patiently on the bench amongst our ramshackle community of herbs, spices and bottles of liquid flavour. JenJen's recipe for wattleseed and date muffins has been lurking in my link list for even longer, but it all came together in its own good time when I thawed and ate the last banana walnut muffin, and then noticed fresh dates at the supermarket.

These muffins aren't as nutritious as I aspire to for afternoon snacking but like I said, it was Their Time. I have been rewarded with a delightfully adult treat, all mellow brown sugar and smoky spice with a bit of sweet stickiness from the dates and the slightest buttery crispness around the edge. They're rather dense as muffins go, but we can probably blame my heavy hand for that. And I don't mean to lead you into temptation but the uncooked batter tastes incredible - perhaps even better than the final product!

If you'd like to give these a go, check out the recipe at Milk and Cookies: the only alteration I made was to use brown sugar instead of light muscovado.