These Pistachio Muffins are made soft and fluffy with Greek yogurt and pistachio pudding mix, then baked with a simple trick for magnificently tall, bakery-style muffins. Have these moist, flavorful muffins ready in just about 30 minutes!
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📋 About the Recipe
- Subtly green muffins! If you're looking for an easy muffin recipe to whip up for St. Patrick's Day or another celebration where green muffins are welcome, you'll love these delicious pistachio muffins. They get their subtle green color from instant pudding mix and chopped pistachios.
- Made with simple ingredients. You'll need just 12 basic ingredients to make these muffins, many are likely already stocked in your pantry, similar to these pumpkin zucchini muffins.
- Topped with real pistachios. These muffins are sprinkled with real pistachios for the perfect crunchy muffin top and classic nutty flavor. Combined with the cinnamon sugar sprinkled throughout, this delicious treat is guaranteed to be one of your favorite pistachio desserts!
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Flour - I have only tested these bakery style muffins using all-purpose flour that has been spooned and leveled into a measuring cup. It provides the best tender crumb and a good balance of protein. Replacing the all purpose flour with an alternate flour can change the end result drastically and is not recommended.
- Instant Pistachio Pudding Mix - This powdered dessert mix is traditionally used to make creamy and flavorful pudding (try my Halloween Trifle for a delicious pistachio pudding!). In this recipe, we're adding the pudding mix to the muffin batter for delicious pistachio flavor, a natural-looking green color, and additional moisture!
- Greek yogurt - Plain, full-fat Greek yogurt works best and adds moisture, creaminess, and richness that enhances the pistachio flavor in the pudding mix. I never recommend replacing full-fat dairy products with low-fat or fat-free because that will change the texture of the muffin.
- Pistachios - Chopped pistachios are optional, but add the perfect finishing touch and crunch to the top of the pistachio muffins.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
- Plain Greek yogurt substitute: The plain yogurt can be replaced with plain, full-fat sour cream, if needed.
📓 Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, then line 2 muffin pans with 22 muffin cup liners.
- Combine the dry ingredients. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, pudding mix, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Whisk to combine.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add sugar, oil, and butter. Beat the ingredients together until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Beat in vanilla and eggs. One at a time, until fully combined.
- Combine remaining ingredients. Add ½ of the dry flour mixture to the stand mixing bowl and beat together until just combined. Add ½ of the Greek yogurt to the mixture and beat again. Repeat this process with the remaining flour mixture and Greek yogurt until a smooth, thick muffin batter forms.
- Add half of the batter to the muffin cups. Scoop the muffin batter into the paper muffin liners, filling each muffin cup up about ⅓ of the way up.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, then layer more of the batter on top. Sprinkle each muffin cup with ½ teaspoon cinnamon sugar. Then, additional batter overtop, about another ⅓ of the way so the muffin cups are ⅔ full.
- Add additional cinnamon sugar and unsalted pistachios. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with coarse sugar, cinnamon sugar, and/or unsalted pistachios.
- Bake. Bake the pistachio muffins for 8 minutes at 425 degrees F, then decrease the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Cool to room temperature. Once baked, allow the pistachio muffins to cool for 10 minutes in the muffin pan before removing them from the pan and cooling them completely to room temperature on a cooling rack.
- Serve. Enjoy as the perfect breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea or as a delicious dessert with a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream.
❄️ How to Store
To store: Homemade pistachio muffins will keep best when stored at room temperature in an airtight container. If stored in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dry environment, these moist muffins should last for up to 3 days.
To freeze: These pistachio muffins can also be frozen for up to 3 months. To freeze, wrap each individual muffin in plastic wrap before placing together in a large, zip top bag. This will help prevent sticking and keep the fluffy texture of the muffins nice and soft upon thawing.
Thaw frozen muffins at room temperature until soft again, then enjoy as usual!
🔍 Recipe FAQs
In order to achieve moist muffins every time, there are a few things to keep in mind. For starters, it is important to follow the recipe and avoid making significant substitutions.
Baking is a science and this recipe is developed to use the correct ratio of moist ingredients to dry ingredients.
Second, it is important to avoid over-mixing the batter. If you're not careful, this can be easy to do in a stand mixer.
Make sure to keep the speed slow and mix until the ingredients are just combined. Continuing to mix past this point can lead to dry, tough muffins.
This depends on the muffin recipe, but in general, oil is typically the more popular choice because it does not contain water like butter does. This makes muffins more moist, fluffy, and creates the most tender crumb possible.
With that being said, some recipes will recommend butter over oil for the additional flavor and slightly different texture.
In this particular pistachio pudding muffin recipe, I recommend using both oil and butter. I find the combination of the two to yield the best texture and flavor. If you want the best pistachio muffins, I highly recommend this method!
For this pistachio muffin recipe, you will want to use shelled, unsalted, chopped pistachios. These pistachio nuts are buttery, rich in flavor, yet won't make the tops of your muffins salty.
💭 One More Tip
Use room temperature eggs and Greek Yogurt. Room temperature ingredients mix more easily and evenly into the muffin batter, resulting in a smoother, better texture.
Additionally, room temperature batters bake faster than cold batters, which will ensure your muffins bake through properly in the called for time.
🍴 Related Recipes
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Pistachio Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 (3.4 oz) package pistachio pudding mix
- 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup plain greek yogurt, room temperature
- ¼ cup cinnamon sugar*
- Coarse sugar optional for topping
- Unsalted chopped pistachios optional for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line two muffin pans with 22 liners.
- In a medium bowl, add flour, pudding mix, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Whisk to combine.
- To the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add sugar, oil, and butter. Beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Beat in vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, until fully combined.
- Add ½ the flour mixture to the mixing bowl. Beat until just combined. Add ½ the greek yogurt, beat again. Then repeat with remaining flour and yogurt.
- Scoop muffin batter into prepared muffin pan, filling each about ⅓ of the way up. The batter will be thick, so you may need to use your finger or a spoon to spread it out in the muffin liner.
- Sprinkle ½ teaspoon cinnamon sugar mixture over each muffin. Then, fill each another ⅓ of the way up so they’re all ⅔ full, again spreading the batter out with your finger or spoon.
- Sprinkle tops with coarse sugar, cinnamon sugar, and/or unsalted pistachios.
- Bake for 8 minutes at 425 degrees F, then without opening the oven or removing the muffins, decrease the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling the rest of the way on a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
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