TWD: Orange Berry Muffins

Jaime from Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats invited me a few days ago to join Tuesdays With Dorie! Tuesdays with Dorie is a group of 6 people now (Jaime as mentioned, Quirky Cupcake, Sugar & Spice, Abby Sweets, Crazy Delicious and Queen of the Marginally Bright) who choose one recipe a week and all make the same thing from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. Such a great idea as I really love this cookbook and haven't made nearly enough things out of it. So this was my first week with them and we made orange berry muffins!

I wasn't sure that I was going to make them as I was trying to be healthier this week with my whole wheat blueberry muffins. But when I found out that today was a snow day and my school was closed, I had to make them! And I'm really glad I did. They're such soft, fluffy and tender muffins. And so beautiful looking too! I went all out and even buttered the muffin tin instead of using muffin cups, making for nice crispy muffin edges all around, mmm. I didn't have any buttermilk, so I used milk with a bit of vinegar and it seemed to work fine (my first time using a buttermilk substitution).

The blueberry and orange flavours were perfectly balanced and the muffins were just the right sweetness. The muffins were very easy to put together and I love that the recipe uses melted butter instead of room temperature butter, meaning you can bake them on a whim! Thanks ladies for welcoming me to your group. Go check out the others' blogs to see their yummy muffins!

Other muffins I've made:
Almond Coconut
Snickerdoodle
Lemon Poppyseed
Healthy Banana Bran
Healthy Pumpkin Banana

Orange Berry Muffins
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan)

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1/2 tbsp vinegar + 3/4 cup milk, mixed (or 3/4 cup buttermilk)
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.