Orange Muffins

Yesterday as my little girl requested Orange Muffins for breakfast, I realized I have never posted this recipe before. My little girl often requests these muffins. They are her very favorite.

This recipe came from my good friend, Kristen. I’ve been making them for years since I had them in mini form at her house. She liked to add dried papaya to her muffins.

Notes:

It is not a typo–this recipe does not call for eggs. The texture of the muffins is somewhere between a moist pound cake and a biscuit. They are not your typical springy muffin inside. Also, the recipe instructs that you make a sweet orange “glaze” to dip the muffins in after they have finished baking. I never do this because they are sweet and perfect enough on their own, but I’ve included that part in the recipe below.

Orange Muffins
from Kristen Gough
Yields: 36 mini, or 12 regular muffins

Ingredients:

For glaze:
1 cup sugar
juice of 1 orange, about 1/2 cup

For muffins:
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest (I always use my microplane.)
3/4 cup sour cream
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Instructions:

For glaze:
Mix sugar with the orange juice. Set aside.

For muffins:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Prepare the muffin pans by greasing well, or use paper liners. This recipe will use one regular (12-cup) muffin pan, or if making mini-muffins, you will get approximately 36. Make sure to let the mini-muffin pan cool completely and grease it again very well before baking a second or third batch.

Place the 1 cup sugar in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer. Add the orange zest and rub it between your fingers until it is sandy and wet. Add the butter. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes or so.

Sift or whisk the dry ingredients together.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat, followed by half the sour cream. Add another 1/3 of the flour, beat, and add the remaining sour cream. Add the last of the flour and beat. The batter will be VERY stiff.

Transfer the batter to the prepared muffin pan. For regular muffins you will use almost exactly 1/4 cup of batter. I use a small ice cream scoop and each regular muffin well gets two scoops. The mini-muffins will take about1-2 tsp of batter, depending on your pan.

Bake at 375 degrees F for about 25 minutes for regular muffins and 9-10 minutes for mini-muffins. To be sure muffins are done baking, insert a toothpick into the center and it should come out clean. The muffin tops will be lightly golden.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove them to a cooling rack. If desired, dip the tops of the muffins in the orange juice and sugar mixture and serve.

(This time for half the batter, I added some dried black currants that I plumped a bit in a little hot water.)

Add-in ideas:

dried fruit–black currants, cranberries, (Kristen adds dried papaya)
chopped nuts
spices–cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves (use a tiny bit)
poppy seeds

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