Orange Raisin Muffins

I adapted this recipe from the Orange Date Muffin recipe from the The Joy of Baking website. I made a few changes to fit the ingredients I had at home. For example, instead of using 1 cup of whole wheat flour, I just added another cup of all purpose flour. (Though I do wish we had whole wheat flour on hand) I also used muscovado sugar instead of regular brown sugar and substituted buttermilk for a mixture of milk and vinegar.  Plus, I did not add any nuts. But the biggest change I made was using raisins instead of dates.

The result was amazing. My family polished off the muffins in record time. The best part was that the scent of oranges and freshly baked muffins just seemed to waft around the house. Super delicious. Next time, I plan on following the recipe exactly as it was written, but for now, I'm glad I made some substitutions.

Orange Raisin Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup muscovado sugar (sifted)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon orange zest

1/3 cup fresh orange juice

2/3 cup milk + 1 teaspoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg, beaten

4 tablespoon butter, melted

2/3 cup raisins

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and orange zest. In another bowl, whisk together the milk and the vinegar mixture. Add the orange juice, vanilla extract, egg and melted butter to this and whisk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir until just combined. Fold in the raisins. Remember not to over mix. 

Pour the batter into 12 muffin cups. Bake in a preheated oven at 200C (400F) for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean. Serve warm, not hot.

Of Failures

First attempt at orange muffins

Even the best of us can fail sometimes. In fact there's tons of scientific literature on human error and how to avoid it. Engineers design systems specifically to minimize these errors. Sometimes the solution is as simple as getting enough sleep, but sometimes it's as complicated as designing a new system. I guess it's the same thing in baking and cooking. There a loads of ways one can make mistakes in baking and cooking. And though I've never burnt the kitchen down, I've had my moments of failures. Here are two examples.

I've wanted for some time to make orange muffins and since we had the most beautiful supply of oranges this year, I thought it would be the perfect time to make them. My first recipe came from: The Domestic Goddess blog. From the very start, I thought it was weird that the recipe did not include any leavening agent like baking powder or even baking soda. Still, I desperately wanted to make these, so I followed the recipe, despite my doubts. My second mistake here was simply changing the lemons to oranges, without remembering that the oranges were very sweet on their own. The result was a sickly sweet muffin that felt more like rubber than a muffin.

My second attempt turned out better, but I still managed to make a mistake. The good part was, it's not really my own fault. Has anyone told you that sometimes you cannot trust your senses? Well that's definitely true here. When I made the second batch, I picked up a jar filled with what I thought was flour. Yes, looked, felt and smelled like flour, and in my head I thought ", It must be flour." How totally wrong I was. Once the muffins baked, they looked a lot better than my first attempt despite not having a muffin top. Unfortunately, they had an odd flour-like smell to them. I was about to chalk all these up to me using old flour, but when I told my mom about it, her face fell. It turns out I might have used rice flour instead. Since my mom's kitchen did not really have labels, I must have picked up the wrong jar. See what I mean about changing the system?

Anyway, I would still use this recipe from Pinch of Yum again. Hopefully the next time I make muffins, I'll actually have the right flour. The muffins actually taste good despite the floury smell.

Orange Muffin
1/3 cup milk
3 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons corn syrup
juice of 1 large orange (I used naval oranges)
1 cup flour
1/3 cup muscovado sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

For glaze (optional, I opted out)
1 cup powdered or icing or confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

orange zest plus white sugar (1:2 ratio)

Start by preheating the oven to 350F or 180C. Whisk milk, oil, egg, corn syrup and orange juice together. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir until just combined. Pour into a prepared muffin pan and bake for 10-15minutes.

For the glaze, combine the powdered sugar and the orange juice. Drizzle this over the muffins and sprinkle a mixture of orange zest and white sugar on top.

Edit: I finally found out what sort of "flour" I added to the muffins. My dad says it's semolina. Trust me to mistake semolina for all purpose flour.

Of Strawberry Muffins

My strawberry muffins started because I was hungry and couldn't find anything to snack on. The recipe I used was from allrecipes.com. It was ok, but I wish I had read the reviews first before baking them. That's one thing I love about this website. The reviews are really really helpful.

Like many muffins, I started with

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup chopped strawberries

I combined the wet ingredients (oil, milk, egg) first in a small bowl and whisked them lightly. In a larger bowl, I combined the salt, baking powder, sugar and flour. I added the strawberries to the flour mixture until they were coated, then poured the liquids into dry mixture. I mixed them until everything was just moist. I divided the mixture into 8 muffin cups and baked in a 190C or 375F oven.

Now for the changes I did and will do to the recipe:

1. I added a few drops of vanilla extract to the liquid mixture, just to give it that wonderful smell. I also decreased the amount of sugar used to 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon.

2. Next time, I think I will macerate the strawberries in a little sugar first before using them.

3. I will also reduce the amount of flour to 1 1/2cup instead of 1 3/4cup.

4. I think I'll serve them with a bit of cream next time too.

I hope that next time, my muffins will taste better than they already do now.