Andrea’s Recipes

When I acquired a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours a couple months ago, my reasoning was I needed it for whatever challenges The Daring Bakers might throw out, but really it’s because I wanted to try every recipe in the book. I’d seen wonderful samples all over the cooking blogs for so long I couldn’t hold out any longer.

Even though The Daring Bakers made Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake in March, I felt I should start at the beginning and work my way through the book, so we started with her Orange Blueberry Muffins for breakfast one morning, and they were gone in a flash. As I studied the recipe the night before, I realized I had some homemade candied orange peel stored in a jar of sugar in the pantry, and I couldn’t resist adding it. I chopped about 1/4 cup of the peel (sorry, I forgot to weigh it) and then sprinkled some of the orange sugar on top of the muffins. As it turns out, it’s a good thing I added the chopped orange peel because Top Gun was stealing blueberries behind my back, so adding the orange peel helped make up for the loss of the blueberries.

We enjoyed the extra orange flavor, and now I have to make more candied orange peel so we can have these muffins again.  The orange and blueberry combination was delicious. And as for the color, they really were that orange!

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Equipment

regular sized muffin pan, buttered or lightly coated with cooking spray
baking sheet
large glass measuring cup or bowl
large mixing bowl
#20 (large) cookie scoop (3 tablespoons)

Ingredients

grated zest and juice of 1 orange
about 3/4 cup (178 ml) buttermilk (I use 1 tablespoon lemon juice + enough skim milk to make 3/4 cup)
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
1 stick (8 tablespoons/113 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup (58 g) granulated sugar
2 cups (240 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (141 g) blueberries, fresh preferred, frozen ok (not thawed)
1/4 cup chopped candied orange peel
orange sugar (from storing the orange peel)

Preparation

1. Place the baking rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400° F. Place the muffin pan on the baking sheet.

2. Pour the orange juice into the large glass measuring cup and add enough of the buttermilk to make 1 full cup (237 ml). Whisk in the eggs, honey, and melted butter.

3. In the large mixing bowl, rub the orange zest into the butter until you can smell the orange. It should smell strong.

4. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to quickly and gently stir. The batter will look lumpy and bubbly, and that’s ok.

5. Gently stir in the blueberries and the chopped orange peel.

6. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups and sprinkle the orange sugar on top.

7. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. The tops should be golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Carefully remove and allow to cool a few minutes before serving warm or at room temperature.

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Source: adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Tags: fruit, muffins