Relish Muffins

I had just finished mixing up some muffin batter and was putting it into the cups when Max said to Claire: "We're having relish muffins! Yum!" 

He had just walked into the kitchen a few minutes earlier and had seen me adding something greenish and finely chopped to the muffin batter. Since he loves relish, I guess he was pretty excited about it!

I looked around at them. "Relish muffins?" 

"Yeah," said Max, "I saw you putting relish in them!" 

At this point, Claire was thoroughly disgusted.  "Yuck!" 

I laughed. "Those were chopped dried figs, not relish!"  We have two fig trees- one with purple fruit and one with greenish yellow fruit.  I guess when they are finely chopped, they must resemble relish?  What do you think? 

Here are some of the finished muffins:

If you'd like to make some "relish" muffins, here's the recipe:

I doubled this recipe and it made 2 dozen standard sized muffins plus 1 dozen mini muffins. The recipe as written is supposed to make one dozen standard sized muffins. It is adapted from the Whole Wheat Muffins recipe in The Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Grease muffin pans or line with papers

Whisk together in a large bowl:
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Beat in a separate bowl:
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons melted butter
Add to the dry ingredients with a few swift strokes.

Fold in, before the dry ingredients are entirely moist:
1/2 cup chopped dried figs

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.