Orange-Blueberry Muffins
Waking up Christmas morning, nothing quite starts the day as well as something warm and cozy from the kitchen. When we were younger, this sometimes meant Mom’s coffee cake or blueberry buckle. Or sausages and pancakes. Unfortunately, I’ve always found christmas morning a bit frazzled, running around in the last-minute madness before a day traveling from home to home in the whirl of the family holiday.
Sitting at my folks’ house on Christmas Eve 2010, watching Mom put together the apple pies for the following evening, I thought about my freezer and the stacks of blueberries nestled there since the previous summer. Our Christmas obligations were slightly reduced for the year, and I decided then and there, heck, I’m making muffins tomorrow morning.
I sought out a basic blueberry muffin recipe, and added a few little twists of my own to accommodate a time crunch and my own pantry. The results were a light and airy blueberry muffin, not too sweet, with a hint of crunch and tang on top.
Ingredients
- Zest of 2 medium oranges, divided
- 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 2 cups skim milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups bread flour
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) blueberries
Preparation
- Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line two regular-sized, 12-count muffin pans with muffin cups.
- With a food processor, pulse together half of the orange zest and 1 cup granulated sugar. Pour into small bowl and break chunks apart with fingers to make fine powder. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, beat together remaining orange zest, milk, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to wet ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix; batter should be a little lumpy. Fold blueberries in by hand.
- Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full of batter. Generously sprinkle sugar-zest mixture over the top of each cup. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until the muffins become slightly golden. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Best served warm.
Yields 24 muffins