Sunday morning muffins: orange-nutmeg

Muffins are a satisfying Sunday morning project. Mix the dry stuff, mix the wet stuff, mix them together and 20 or so minutes later: muffiny goodness. Tear into one of these warm fluffy things with a nice cup of coffee and you're ready to sail just a little less woefully through the last day of the weekend.

This morning I tried a recipe for orange-nutmeg muffins that I found over on Orangette. They sounded really lovely and flavorful and kind of perfect for winter when nothing but oranges and bananas are available for mix-ins. I made one substitution--buttermilk instead of heavy cream, only because while at the market I'd thought that was actually what the recipe called for--and while mixing up the batter it occurred to me that the tang of the buttermilk might bring out the zingy nutmeg and orange even more. (Oh happy accident!) However, the finished product didn't really taste all that spicy or zingy. It didn't actually taste like much at all! (Oh unhappy accident!) But I don't think it was the buttermilk's fault. The texture of the muffin was nice: moist and crumby, with just a little bit of chew (which I owe to the buttermilk and the fact that there's no butter and just a little bit of oil in these guys), but the flavor was really very light.




In retrospect, I should have expected this. Orange and nutmeg are great flavors, but they can't really carry a recipe on their own. When paired with a more dominant fruit like cranberry (and in the case of nutmeg, apple or pear), you can identify and appreciate their presence with much more lip-smacking gusto. I'd recommend keeping this recipe in your repertoire as a great base for fruity muffins. If you want to give it a whirl, try adding 3/4 cup of one of the following to bump up the flavor: cranberries, peeled and diced apple or pear, or diced dried apricots.
I froze the remaining muffins in this batch and plan to break them out next weekend and try them with a spoonful of this cranberry jam I've been wanting to make.





Orange-Nutmeg Muffins (adapted only ever-so-slightly from Orangette)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup light brown sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg (Chefty note: I added closer to a full teaspoon)
½ tsp salt
Zest of ½ to 1 orange, to taste
1 large egg
¾ cup heavy cream (Chefty note: or buttermilk)
¾ cup milk (I used whole, but any type is fine)
4 Tbs canola oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. (Chefty note: I only have a 6-cup tin, allow for an extra ten minutes in the oven if that's what you use.)

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and zest. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg well. Then stir in the cream, milk, and oil, whisking to blend well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir to just combine (overmixing will develop the gluten in the flour and make for tough muffins).

Scoop the muffin batter evenly into the wells of the greased muffin tin. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes (or 30 minutes if you're using a 6-cup tin), or until domed and nicely golden. Serve warm.

Orangette notes that these muffins freeze really well. [Allow them to thaw at room temperature; then reheat them gently in a 300-degree oven.] As I mentioned above, I've frozen the rest of my batch and will report back on how they taste reheated.

Yield: 12 smallish muffins (or 6 big fluffy ones).