Cranberry Orange Muffins
At Christmastime of 2004 I gave my husband a gag gift – a wrapped up box of a particular brand of popcorn we happened to be obsessed with. As I handed it to him, he immediately guessed what it was. Wind let out of my sails, we decided to keep it wrapped and unwrap it when we finally forgot what was in the box.
We’ve carried the box with us through two out-of-state moves and sadly, we both know exactly what is wrapped up in that plain blue wrapping paper. The corners are all bashed in, the bow is smashed, the writing on the tag is faded and the popcorn is probably oh-so-expired.
These muffins are sort of the same. I made them quite a while ago and not again since and the Ominvore won’t forget about them.
I made these for him twice within a short time period nearly three years ago and he constantly hints at me making them again. I keep promising I’ll make them – buying the oranges and keeping cranberries frozen in the freezer, but I never get around to it. The ingredients get used for other purposes and his sweet tooth moves onto its next desire.
This morning after getting embarrassingly frustrated with an inanimate object (damn farm equipment), I flew into the house to get the chill of my hands and relax. Immediately I saw dishes in the sink, heaved a big sigh, and went to work cleaning the kitchen. Once it was clean (bad timing), I decided to surprise my dear husband with a batch of the muffins that he craves so desperately but has totally forgotten about. They were just as good as we remembered – no wonder that memory lasted 3 years.
Cranberry Orange Muffins (slightly adapted from America’s Test Kitchen via Christine’s Cuisine)
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup of buttermilk
6 tbsp. unsalted butter – melted and cooled
1/3 cup orange juice
1 large egg
1 tbsp. grated orange zest
1 1/2 cups of thawed frozen cranberries (or fresh), chopped
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place 12 muffin liners in muffin tin.
- Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a large bowl.
- In a medium bowl, whisk buttermilk, melted butter, orange juice, egg and orange zest.
- Gently fold in the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with the rubber spatula. Add in cranberries and combine.
- Fill cups 3/4 full and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly.
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