Recipes: Orange Brunch Muffins

My mom and grandma love orange-flavored baked goods, so I wanted to make something orangey for Mother’s Day breakfast 🙂 . I found several interesting recipes, but finally chose this one: Orange Brunch Muffins from the Very Best Baking site. This is a Nestle recipe that calls for white morsels, but my mom absolutely hates white chocolate, so I replaced them with dried cranberries to add some tartness to the mix. It also calls for baking mix as part of the dough… I’ve never used baking mix in a recipe before, so I was a bit ambivalent, but I didn’t want to try any complicated replacements. I just went with the rest of the recipe as is.

I burned my hand with some hot soup last night, so mixing was a bit of a problem and I just hoped that I wasn’t under-mixing, but despite a rough start, the muffins turned out very well. When I took them out of the oven, they looked a bit like biscuits, which I assumed was the result of using baking mix in the recipe (since biscuits are generally made with this mix). The texture is similar to that of a biscuit, slightly crusty outer layer and very soft doughy middle. The taste nice and orangey, and the cranberries and macadamias provided a nice balance of tart and crunchy. They are not overly sweet, but just right for a breakfast muffin.

muffins

Here is the recipe as I prepared it: my modifications are in red

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose baking mix (I used Bisquick Healthy Start)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange peel (I used fresh orange peel)
about 2/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup macadamia nuts (I added a bit less because my gran can’t have too many nuts)

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375º F. Grease or paper-line 18 muffin cups.

COMBINE baking mix, flour and sugar in large bowl. Add eggs, yogurt, juice and orange peel; stir just until blended. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling 3/4 full.

BAKE for 18 to 22 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool slightly.

muffin