Thursday, January 29, 2009

A Little Taste of Sunshine Cran-Orange Mini Muffins

From Cran-orange minis


There are flavor pairings that I absolutely love; peanut butter and chocolate, coffee and chocolate, cake and ice cream, hot bread and sweet butter, beer and pizza.

My recent pairing to add to the list is cranberry and orange. To me, the undertones of the sweet orange and the tartness of the cranberry are just peppy and fun. Yes, peppy and fun! It reminds me of sunshine breaking through an open window and touching my face. Today, I surprised my boys with an after school snack of mini muffins with a little taste of sunshine.

Cran-Orange Mini Muffins (from First Magazine, July 21, 2008 ed., pg 64)
Preheat oven to 450F. In a bowl, combine 4 Tbs. unsalted butter, softened, and 2 tsp orange zest; chill. In a bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups reduced-fat pancake and baking mix, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 tsp. orange zest and 2 Tbs. of sugar. Stir in 1/2 cup dried cranberries. Divide mixture among greased wells of 12-well mini-muffin pans. Bake 8 minutes, or until golden. Serve with orange butter.

The recipe lives up to its "breakfast in a blink" description. It did only take 5 minutes to combine and a total of 10 minutes to make, even though I had to measure, combine, and pour with an infant on my hip. I am getting used to doing things in the kitchen and around the house that way! That and type on the computer.

From Cran-orange minis

These muffins are lightly sweetened, have a nice citrus and golden muffin flavor.

I only got about 18 muffins from the recipe. The orange butter is amazing! I think honey would go great mixed into the butter or drizzled onto the muffin. I mixed the butter in a small bowl and transferred it to a ramekin before chilling. I also used Craisins, instead of cranberries. It took my mini muffins only 7 minutes to bake. No surprise there, my Dino Oven, sometimes lovingly referred to as THE MONSTER, tends to bake things faster than I would like.

Overall, these are a great, super easy muffins to bake "in a blink" for breakfast, brunch, or an after school snack. I must warn you, the butter is addicting!

From Cran-orange minis


I would also like to take this time to thank Barbara of Barbara Bakes. She gave me my first ever blog award. I am really touched by her kindness and really enjoy reading her blog. She has some really wonderful recipes and creations over there!

I know I am supposed to pass the award on, but I am just happy to post this before I have to get the kids to bed and tend to the baby. I think all bloggers out there are swell and I enjoy following along with their daily culinary or personal journeys! To me, you all deserve awards for taking the time to share a little of yourself with this tiny part of the world!

7 comments:

Kaitlin said...

Yummy! Those look and sounds awesome. I love mini muffins, so cute!

Anonymous said...

The cranberry and orange flavor sounds wonderful for muffins. Delicious! Congrats on your award.

Barbara Bakes said...

I also love the combination of cranberry and orange! I'm happy that your awards made you smile!

Hayley said...

there is something about mini muffins that just makes me happy. I mean, come on, who's going to turn down a mini muffin? Yours look great!

Sara said...

These look so good. Orange and cranberry is such a classic flavor combination.

Dragana said...

I will have to talk to your boys about not saving even 1, one, uno, for Ms. Dragana!

Jennifer said...

Those look delish, I also adore mini muffins, one bit of goodness!!!