Cempedak Muffins

I have a sudden craving for cempedak on Tuesday so was driving around KK looking for it.
I started with Tun Fuad Park after my morning run then off to Foh Sang, no luck with either place & I was told that cempedak is not in season now. I didn't give up & moved on to the Central KK Market & guess what ? I saw a lady unpacking a huge baket full of cempedak.
I chose the smallest one which weighed 2kg, paid her & happily went home.
I didn't tell hubby that I bought a cempedak so when he came home for lunch on Tuesday afternoon, he was asking me about the strong smell in the kitchen. That goes to show that I've not buy any cempedak for a long long time !

To avoid the sticky white sap on my hands, I got Tina to cut the cempedak & removed the seeds. Well, the cempedak that I got was the light yellow type, nothing compared to the gorgeous deep orange type that Terri had !

I always make my cempedak into muffins instead of loaf cake as I like having coffee with little cakes in pretty cases. This recipe was originally a durian butter cake but I've made some changes to make it into cempedak muffins.

This recipe yields 15 standard muffins
Ingredients :

180g butter
120g Caster sugar *
4 Eggs, seperated
150g Pureed cempedak flesh
50g Cempedak flesh, roughly chopped *
180g Self-raising flour
1/2 Tsp Baking powder *
2 Tbsp Milk *

Line muffin tray with paper cases & set aside. Cream butter & caster sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add cempedak & beat until well blended. Fold in flour & stir in milk. Whisk egg whites in a seperate bowl until stiff. Fold into egg yolk mixture until well combined. Fill each paper lined muffin hole to 3/4 full, bake in a preheated oven of 180C for 22-25 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. I love the aroma of freshly baked cempedak muffins, couldn't resist it, popped one into my mouth shortly after they were out of the oven !

* The original recipe calls for 150g but I've reduced it to 120g. I'll always reduce the sugar content of a recipe by 20% when I bake. I've added extra 50g of roughly chopped cempedak for the bite in the muffin because you get only the smell after pureeing them. Be sure to scrap the pureed cempedak from the beater of the mixer as they get stuck to it due to the stringy nature.
I've also added 1/2 tsp of baking powder to the flour mixture for the muffins to be fluffier. From previous experiences of baking these muffins, I find that 2 Tbsp of milk is not sufficient, so I've added I think another 1-2 Tbsp of it, I didn't measure juz add until the consistency is right.

Please bear with me for the 'lousy' pics that I took as I'm not a good photographer !