After baking hundreds of muffins in the last few months, I thought muffins were disaster-proof. They are not: my bad streak in the kitchen last week extended from several dinner disasters to breakfast disasters. In fact, muffin disasters. Two in a row. I can’t even remember the first one, I think I tried millet flour in it, and this seemed to be the reason for some strange, almost burning aftertaste in the mouth. The other ones were some chocolate cherry coconut muffins. They came out dry as dust. It wasn’t really their fault, as I forgot one ingredient that would have definitely made them moister…..
It was time to stop experimenting for a few days and cook and bake some good old classics.
Since I used lots of orange zest in my Christmas bakings, it has become one of my favorite flavors. In fact, these muffins with orange zest, dried cranberries and pistachios were our Christmas muffins, the moistest, fluffiest muffins ever, full of flavor and, I dare say, disaster-proof. As Christmas is over now, I just call them Orange Cranberry Muffins. Simple as that. Bon appetit!
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ORANGE CRANBERRY MUFFINS
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup buttermilk or yogurt
5 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup pecan nuts, chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
grated zest of 1 big orange
grated zest of 1 big orange
Yields ca. 6 muffins
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Preheat oven to 200C. Line muffin tins with muffin liners.
Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and stir well. In another bowl, mix buttermilk/yogurt, canola oil, agave syrup and eggs. Combine wet with dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Don’t overmix.
Fold in orange zest, cranberries and pecans. Keep some of the cranberries and pecans to garnish the tops of the muffins.
Spoon mixture into the muffin cases. Top with small amount of chopped pecans and cranberries.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool a little before dusting with icing sugar (if desired).
Beautiful muffins. I can imagine the beautiful orange flavour and the natural sweetness of the cranberries.