Several weeks ago, I posted a recipe for lemon blueberry muffins. To change things up this week, I decided to make orange blueberry muffins. Crazy, right? It’s all about living life in the fast lane for me.
In my cookbook, the very first recipe is these Orange Berry Muffins. Although I’m not sure why that’s relevant, something has to come first, and that’s it.
In recent years, these muffins have topped the list of my favorite recipes. The orange blueberry combo was a nice change from the lemon zest that I usually add to berry muffins.
They had a great crumb and were very tender and moist—obviously a classic recipe. To my surprise, I enjoyed them even though they were not too sweet. The batter contains only 1/3 cup of sugar, and honey and orange juice provide the remaining sweetness.
I used the zest of two oranges in this recipe but only a little juice from one orange (about 1/4 cup). The result was an orange flavor that wasn’t overwhelming.
I used 6 ounces of blueberries, which is standard container size. In my opinion, these could use a bit more berries; a full 8 ounces would probably do the trick.
This is a great recipe to make if you have a bounty of blueberries. Since I just scored blueberries for 99 cents per pint, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will make these again soon.
The full recipe follows after the jump.
Muffins with orange and blueberries
There are 12 in all
Zest of 2 oranges grated
Orange juice, 1/4 cup
3/4 cup buttermilk
Two large eggs
Honey, 3 tbsp
Canola oil, 1/2 cup
Sugar, 1/3 cup
All-purpose flour, 2 cups
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Baking soda, 1/4 tsp
Salt, 1/4 tsp
Fresh blueberries, if frozen, do not thaw
Set the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray or grease your muffin pans.
Juice your oranges after zesting them. Combine the juice, buttermilk, eggs, honey, and canola oil in a bowl.
Stir together the sugar and orange zest in a large bowl until the aroma is strong. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in the bowl.
Stir together with a rubber spatula the liquid ingredients with the dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix. Add the blueberries and stir until just barely combined; you can finish mixing when the blueberries are added. Stir the blueberries in.
Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups. I use an ice cream scoop of 1/4 cup.
Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. A cake tester or knife will come out clean when the muffin tops are fully baked. Before removing the cookies from the pan, place the pan on a cooling rack and allow it to cool for a few minutes. If I remove muffins from a silicon pan after they have completely cooled, I find they come out cleaner and more manageable than if they are still warm. Muffins can be frozen for up to 2 months.