Marbled cantaloupe muffins

I love nothing more than returning home from a trip to a clean house, and especially a clean kitchen - which is why when we're gone from home for more than one night I work my way through everything in the fridge through meal planning, then use up or prep for storage all remaining perishables. Many kitchen experiments are born this way, included these scrumptious breakfast or anytime-snack muffins.

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I've never used cantaloupe in baking, but I said to myself, why not? It's like a sweeter, softer zucchini, should work ok, right? I also had some banana left over from another project so I used that up as well (necessity is the mother of invention) and the flavor combination of the two fruit is quite a pleasant surprise. The banana, along with a bit of applesauce, replaced a good portion of the oil/butter normally required in a zucchini bread list of ingredients and helped lighten up this treat.

First step of prep is to grate your cantaloupe on the large side of a box grater - if yours is as juicy ripe as mine, you'll get a lot of juice in addition to the fruit shreds. Drain the juice and reserve for a different application. What I did with mine was freeze it in a wide glass container, then scrape it up with a fork for quick and delicious natural snow cones! If using banana, mash it and have it ready, you can mix it with the applesauce since they get used together a bit later.

Next, mix your dry ingredients - this is important to ensure even distribution of spices and leavening agents as well as eliminating any clumps from your flour. I like weighing out my flour to ensure proper measuring as density can vary greatly based on how long it's been sitting in a container, how it's scooped and so on. I used cinnamon and powdered ginger, but any combination of warm spices you enjoy would work well here. Or leave them out and use a bit of extra vanilla too if you're not a fan of cinnamon. Also, don't forget the salt! A little goes a long way but it's essential in accentuating flavor.

Whisk the eggs, oil and vanilla extract until frothy, this helps incorporate air into your batter already and makes it easier for the baking powder/soda to raise the muffins during baking. Then add mashed banana, applesauce and cantaloupe and stir until incorporated. Fold in dry ingredients until just integrated, don't overstir so you don't develop too much gluten and end up with gummy muffins.

If you want a touch of chocolate flavor/marbled effect, fill your prepared muffin tins halfway with the mix at this stage, reserving 1/6th of the batter in the bowl. Stir a couple of tbsp of cocoa in the remaining batter and divide among all the muffins, swirling with a toothpick to mix slightly into the top. Alternately, you can skip the cocoa and just sprinkle a few mini chocolate chips on top of each one, my kids really dig chocolate chips in just about anything. Or sprinkles, always sprinkles. 

Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through and springy on top, a toothpick should come out clean. Enjoy slightly cooled or at room temperature. These store well in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.

Marbled Cantaloupe Muffins

Makes 24 muffins in standard cupcake pan

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour (360g)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sugar (200g)
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup mashed banana (1 small banana)
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 3/4 cup grated cantaloupe
• Optional: 2 tbsp cocoa powder or 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F, line 2 cupcake pans (for standard 12 cupcake pan) with paper liners and spray lightly with oil to ensure easy release.
2. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda and baking powder in medium bowl and set aside. 
3. Grate cantaloupe on large side of box grater, mash your banana and measure your applesauce.
4. Whisk eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla extract in stand mixer or with hand mixer until frothy and lightened up. Mix in fruit ingredients until incorporated. 
5. Fold in dry ingredients, careful not to overmix.
6. Scoop batter into prepared pans about halfway, optionally reserving some of the batter for the cocoa.  
7. Mix in cocoa in the reserved batter, then divide among the muffins and swirl with a toothpick for marbled effect. Alternately, sprinkle a few mini chocolate chips on top of each muffin. 
8. Bake until tops are springy and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 22-24 minutes.

Notes

• Banana and applesauce are both substitutes for oil to lighten up the final result, they make the muffins a bit more dense than an all-oil recipe and banana flavor comes through. If you prefer, omit either/both of them and replace with the same amount of oil. Consider increasing sugar amount slightly if increasing the oil as the fruit provide some sweetness as well in the recipe as written.
• I love using olive oil in baking because I enjoy the flavor notes it brings, but you can also use any neutral flavored oil such as avocado or grapeseed.