Caramelized Onion Muffins

You can’t go wrong with caramelized onions, even in muffin form—even in muffin form with no eggs (!). The recipe is from an (almost) vegan Japanese cookbook titled, “Meal-like Cakes and Muffins You’ll Want to Eat Everyday,” which is very wordy when loosely translated by me.

Despite the skepticism I had about the lack of egg, I was surprised when we ate it, still warm from the oven. It was fairly moist and paired well with a strong black coffee. It was sweet but not too sweet and had generous ribbons of caramelized onion throughout. I made some changes—sneaked in some whole wheat flour, used butter instead of canola oil, and buttermilk instead of soy milk. I can’t say if this holds well when cooled or the next day but K ate almost a whole muffin this morning, so it’s a success in my book.

Oh, and hey. Did you check out Noelle’s Peach Chia Shake? That recipe comes from Amy Chaplin’s book (which we lovingly call “the book”). We talk about how we have too many cookbooks and don’t cook enough from them but then excitedly bought “the book” and talk/text about it often. What I love is the recipes I want to try aren’t necessarily hers, so discovering recipes I would’ve otherwise overlooked is part of the fun. This breakfast shake is one of them and I can’t wait to try it.

Caramelized Onion Muffins
玉ねぎマフィン
Adapted from まいにち食べたい“ごはんのような”ケーキとマフィンの本
Makes 5 muffins

I cooked the onions and measured out the dry ingredients the night before.

1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
70g AP flour
30g white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
80ml buttermilk
20g brown sugar (I used sucanat, thanks to Noelle)
2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 Tbsp maple syrup

Preheat the oven at 350ºF. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the onions and salt, and cook until golden (recipe says 10 mins, but it took me 15 mins), stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, brown sugar, butter, and maple syrup until the sugar dissolves. Then, sift in the flour and baking powder and gently fold in with a rubber spatula (it’s okay if it’s lumpy). Add the onions and fold in again, careful not to over mix as this will make the muffins dense. Don’t worry about lumps or if the onions are not evenly dispersed.

Fill each cup with a spoon until 80% full. Bake for 20–25 mins, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.