Orange Apricot Muffins

orange apricot muffins

Seriously, maybe I should change my blog name to something about muffins and soup because it seems like that's all I've been making lately. On the other hand, it's been about 20 degrees outside and we are on day 4 of cancelled school due to snow and ice so having a bit of something warm in the belly is a comfort.

Still on my quest to use up some oranges from the holidays, I began looking for recipes for orange muffins; and came across quiet a few that use the entire orange. In the end, I decided to try combining a couple of recipes to fit the ingredients I currently have lying around the kitchen.

This recipe made 15 large muffins (think coffee house sized). If you are using a standard sized muffin cup (think cupcake size), you will have closer to 22-24 muffins from this batch. Remember to spray your pan, lightly spray the muffin paper liners and to fill your muffin cup 3/4 full.



You will need:

2 small oranges, quartered, seeds removed
1 cup dried apricots
3/4 cups orange juice
1 cup butter, still cold
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger

orange quarters, apricots
and butter

Preheat the oven to 375 and pull out your food processor.  To it add the orange quarters and dried apricots. Pulse until they are roughly chopped before adding in the butter. Pulse until the mixture is in uniform bits but not well mixed together.

Add all of this to a mixing bowl and add the sugar. Blend. Add in the eggs and mix again.

the batter is quite thick

In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add one half to the mixing bowl and blend shortly before adding the orange juice to the bowl and then the remaining dry ingredients. Don't over mix with a mixer, instead scraping down the bowl with a spatula at the end to ensure that all is properly mixed.







Scoop into muffin cups and sprinkle with a bit of sanding sugar if you have it.



For large muffins, bake for 18-20 minutes are until they spring back to the touch. Smaller muffins will take less time. If it appears that they are browning too quickly but not finished in the center, drop the temperature 25 degrees.




Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes in the pan before removing to cool completely outside of the muffin pans.