I grew up in a small town. We had a Dairy Queen, a McDonald’s, and a Hartz Chicken. And a restaurant called the Hot Biscuit. We also had a single small grocery store. If they didn’t have it, you didn’t need it. And if you did, you were out of luck.
That small town is still small but there are at least two places to buy groceries and several other options nearby. And I think that the Hot Biscuit might still be open 🙂
Our grocery store today is a far cry from that single small store. There’s a large prepared food counter for quick-fix dinners, a beer case full of “fancy” beer, a full-service bakery, a live cooking grill, a sushi bar, and my absolute favorite: a counter where you can get fresh, made-right-in-front-of-your-face tortillas. It’ll sure spoil a person, real quick!
That bakery also cranks out a White Chocolate-Mango Muffin that’s pretty much heaven in a cupcake liner. It’s a little heavy on the almond extract but it’s chock-full of fresh mango and white chocolate chunks. And it’s got one of those pretty, sky-high “I came from a real bakery” muffin tops. Once a week, the toddler and I split one while we’re shopping. It’s well worth the money but the “I can do this myself for less” in me knows that I can buy 2 mangos for the price of one muffin. And I can make a dozen muffins at home to have for breakfast all week.
To recreate the muffins, we used our favorite muffin base which is a stripped-down blueberry muffin recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. It’s produces a reliably moist muffin and the batter is really thick so it doesn’t spread and leave you with a flat top. We loaded it with a full cup each of diced mango and white chocolate chips – and were a little lighter-handed with the almond extract. To get a big, puffy muffin top like a commercial bakery, we paired our favorite recipe with a higher-than-usual temperature for the first half-ish of the baking time. The end result is a pretty muffin with a big, dramatic dome that looks just like it came from the bakery down the street.
Only you don’t have to shell out $1.50 per muffin. And you don’t have to put on pants to get one.
White Chocolate-Mango Muffins
Moist, domed bakery-like muffins studded with fresh mango and white chocolate.
Ingredients
- 3 cups + 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 10 Tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 1 1/2 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
- 1 cup diced mango
- 1 cup white chocolate chunks/chips
- Coarse sugar, for sprinkling tops (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400
- Mix 3 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt in medium bowl; set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition followed by the vanilla and almond extract.
- Beat in half of dry ingredients, followed by a third of the yogurt.
- Add remaining dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the yogurt, until incorporated.
- Toss mango and white chocolate with the remaining 1 Tbsp flour and add to the mixer, mixing for just a few more seconds to distribute evenly (the batter will be very, very thick).
- Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray or line with paper liners. And if you find that you're 3 paper liners short, you can improvise with some parchment paper cut in ~5-6 inch squares. But it's a total pain.
- Divide the batter evenly among cups, using a large cookie scoop (my scoop is ~2.25 inches across).
- Sprinkle top lightly with coarse sugar, if using.
- Bake for 8 minutes and then decrease oven temperature to 375 and bake for ~12 more minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool 5 minutes in the pan before removing and cooling completely.
- Will keep ~4 days in a covered cake plate, can be frozen.
Notes
Yields: ~15 muffins
Estimated time: 45 minutes
Wow… those muffins really do look professional. Nice job!
I love how big these muffin tops are – they do look like they came straight from the grocery store! And that combination of mango and white chocolate sounds heavenly!
These sound right up my alley- I made banana mango muffins a few months ago- heavenly!
This is a really neat recipe. I’ve never even had mango in muffins, let alone with white chocolate. These sound fabulous!
I think I love you
What a great combination.. definitely trying this SOON! Thanks for sharing, your muffins are beautiful!
I would’ve never thought to put white chocolate and mango together but now I’m dying to try it! And fresh tortillas from the grocery store? I wanna live near that store!
Haha “you don’t have to put on pants to get one”. Win.
These look fantastic! I’ve never tried a mango- white chocolate combo but it sounds delicious!
That’s an awesome combo!!! I was wondering how to get those big domes…now I know!
Gorgeous! I’m in a rural area, and only have one grocery store nearby. It’s a 2 hour drive to the nearest place like you speak of. Stock up while I’m there. Always in awe of the goodies in their bakery, and these muffins look like they belong in the case. Just gorgeous! And, such a fun flavor combo.
Wow these muffins look amazing!!!! I love the white chocolate and mango combo. Yum!
These look so good! I’ve always wondered how to get the big domed muffins, and I love the idea of a white chocolate/mango combo!
These muffins look wonderful! I love the idea of white chocolate and mango together in a muffin…delicious! 🙂
I love mangoes with cream…but I am ready to try mangoes with white chocolate. Your muffins look fabulous! I’ll be putting whip cream on top for extra appeal 😉
Thanks for the suggestion about the perfect top, was wondering about that. Love these!
These look amazing… and I’m sort of obsessed with the homemade parchment paper liners!!!! 🙂
At these moments I put your wonderful muffins in the oven. I translated your recipe into Hebrew and put it in my blog, with link attached. I hope that the readers of my blog will enjoy your wonderful recipes and photos as I do.
Thank you.
Naama
Those look so great! I love the way you used the paper instead up cups. Very pretty. The part about the not having to wear pants make me laugh 🙂
So *that’s* how they get those big muffin tops! Who knew? Loving this mango/white choc combo – sounds absolutely divine.
Mango and white chocolate?!
Two of my favorite things!
Can’t wait to try these…they sound amazing.
These muffins look so good. I’m loving mango treats and these sound like something i’d go nuts about.
Going to try your tip about high temperature in the first half, hubby loves a good muffin top.
I don’t bake with mango enough. I also like these cupcake liners.
Yeah!! I JUST came from HEB with my toddler and I bought one of these (a rare treat). Babe feel asleep for his morning nap and I devoured it solo. I was thinking the same thing that these would be easy to make, but needed a recipe. Will try it out this weekend. I like the tip about the over temp, didn’t know about it. Have you tried the other muffins? The ricotta/blueberry looked cool too.
My tastebuds can’t wait!!! What a combination! I love, love, LOVE mangos, and who can resist white chocolate? 🙂
Living in Hawaii, I pick mangoes in my backyard and made these muffins for breakfast this morning. Tastes great. I was concerned that the batter would be “overmixed,” but the texture was fine. Thank you for a great recipe.
great muffins, loved every bite of them! will add more mango next time though. thank you!
Split these muffins with my 3 year old while grocery shopping @ HEB all the time! I love them, and I’m so glad that when I hit the search button this popped up. I’m headed to the grocery store for some mangoes later.