An orange muffin day...

So people, I finished my 'test' article for CLEO and sent it off this morning, here's hoping it gets a gold star!

After the gym I decided it was time to break out some of the baking goodies I got for my birthday...


This is essentially what I'm like in the kitchen. :)

Anyhoo, I was lucky enough to get 3 mixing bowls in the end, a spatula, a measuring cup, an oven mit and all sorts of other non-baking items. So being unemployed and all, I didn't exactly want to make an extravagant 3 tier cake or anything so like anybody who's still plagued with student economics I first had a look at what I had lurking in the fridge. Then I had a look online and found this awesome basic muffin recipe. Here it is with my changes:

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
Zest of 3 oranges
1 cup milk (I used the juice from the oranges and added milk to make it up to 1 cup)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar (and grate in orange zest, as soon as you hit the white bit of the skin move on to a new spot ok? Or else they'll be bitter) in a large bowl.

Make a well in the center. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuring cup, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture.

Mix quickly and lightly with a fork until moistened, but do not beat. (As you know, the key to a good fluffy soft muffin is minimal stirring) The batter will be lumpy.

Pour the batter into paper lined muffin pan cups. (If you have a non-stick muffin tin you don't have to bother with the muffin cups and always half fill or else you'll encounter the overflowing muffin effect)

Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.

Other Variations: Blueberry Muffins: Add 1 cup fresh blueberries. Raisin Muffins: Add 1 cup finely chopped raisins. Date Muffins: Add 1 cup finely chopped dates. Cheese Muffins: Fold in 1 cup grated sharp yellow cheese. Bacon Muffins: Fold 1/4 cup crisp cooked bacon, broken into bits.

Now you should know that I have a citrus phobia, so cutting and juicing and zesting the orange was huge. I didn't think I was going to actually eat any but they smelled so good when I took them out of the oven. So I took a mouthful only to realize they tasted fabulous too. It's not too sweet so if you have a sweet tooth you might want to dust it with a little icing sugar but I swear the more you chew the flavours and the sweetness come through. YUM!

Wanna see?



Mmmm...nom nom nom!

xoxo
Miss Deb