These muffins stay moist for DAYS thanks to a secret ingredient!
These delightful green pistachio muffins are an easy muffin recipe to whip up in less than 20 minutes and would be perfect to showcase on St. Patrick’s Day – but honestly, I love making them on any day of the year!
If you think you’re going to have to be shelling all those pistachios in order to make these beauties, think again. I’ve solved that problem by using a pistachio instant pudding mix which also makes these muffins super moist (almost like a cupcake without frosting). They last for a good couple of days at room temperature – that’s if they don’t get eaten before then!
Flavorful and fun, these green muffins are effortless to make and you also have the option of adding real pistachios to your muffins for extra crunch if you wish to jazz them up a bit.
TIPS FOR MAKING PISTACHIO MUFFINS
- Do not overmix the muffins. When mixing the dry ingredients into the wet, use a spoon and stir gently – just a couple swirls to make sure everything is mixed, but not overused. This really will make tough, dense muffins if they get stirred too much.
- Cooking them initially at a higher heat gets the baking powder activated right away and gives the muffins a nice tall dome top.
- Almond extract is my favorite thing in the whole world. You can substitute vanilla extract or even no extracts if you don’t want the almond extract.
- You could add 1/2 cup of crushed pistachios into the batter if you want. I would mix with the dry ingredients and then stir in at once.
- Do not overbake the muffins. Remove them from the baking pan after a few minutes of cooling so they don’t continue cooking from the heat of the muffin tin.
Pistachio Muffins Recipe
- Preheat oven to 425° F. Line muffin tins with muffin liners (I used parchment paper liners (link in recipe card) and they worked great).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, almond extract, and milk until fully combined and fluffy.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, pudding mix, baking powder, and salt.
- Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients and stir, just until mixed together. Lumps are okay.
- Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, filling each cavity 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if using.
- Bake at 425° for 6 minutes, then reduce the heat in the oven to 350° and continue cooking another 11-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.
- Allow muffins to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin tin and transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
HOW SHOULD I STORE THESE PISTACHIO MUFFINS?
- As these muffins are moist from the pudding mix, they won’t dry out for days after baking but are prone to having their muffin tops getting more moist as time goes on.
- To prevent this, I recommend storing your muffins once completely cooled in an airtight container at room temperature with a paper towel placed lightly over the tops of the muffins. The paper towel absorbs any excess moisture.
- Since I used muffin liners, there was no need for me to place a paper towel at the bottom of the container but if you aren’t using muffin liners then this would be a good idea.
IS IT NECESSARY TO USE MUFFIN LINERS?
- I did make use of muffin liners for a few reasons:
- It helps save you the effort of rigorous cleaning your muffin tins later on.
- It prevents any leftover muffins that you store from sticking to the bottom of the container.
- The sides of the muffins tend to darken more than I like when I don’t use muffin liners and since these muffins are so pretty, I wanted to avoid that.
WHAT KIND OF PISTACHIOS SHOULD I USE IF I WANT TO ADD THEM TO THE RECIPE?
- I haven’t added pistachios to this recipe other than the pistachio pudding mix of course but there’s nothing stopping you from adding chopped pistachios to your muffin batter.
- If you do add them, I suggest using ½ cup unsalted pistachios (either raw or roasted). Simply mix your chopped pistachios into the batter right before you pour your muffin batter into the muffin tin with liners.
More Muffins You’ll Want To Munch On
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Pistachio Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3.4 oz box pistachio instant pudding mix
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Coarse sugar for the tops if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425° F. Line muffin tins with muffin liners (I used parchment paper liners (link in recipe card) and they worked great).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, almond extract, and milk until fully combined and fluffy.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, pudding mix, baking powder, and salt.
- Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients and stir, just until mixed together. Lumps are okay.
- Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, filling each cavity 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if using.
- Bake at 425° for 6 minutes, then reduce the heat in the oven to 350° and continue cooking another 11-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.
- Allow muffins to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin tin and transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Recipe Notes:
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Nutrition Information:
Nutrition Disclaimer
Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Ash says
The texture is great, they look great. However, I barely taste pistachio. I wonder how that can be tweaked.
Tiffany says
Made using buttermilk, added 1/2 cup chopped pistachios, almond extract and finished with a dusting on chopped pistachios and sugar on top. Kids liked them!
Albert Blanco says
Best muffins I’ve ever made.
Ann says
Good muffin. Flavor could be a little stronger
Stacey Robinson says
Came out great. Perfectly moist. Made a smaller batch by halving the recipe. Added chopped walnuts to dry ingredients before combining. Delicious.
Hjallord says
Not the best recipe I’ve tried . Very little flavor . Also kind of dry .
Corey says
Sorry you didn’t like the muffins.