Orange Breakfast Muffins

Name: Orange Breakfast Muffins
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 cup Whole wheat flour; 1/2 cup Oat flour; 1/2 cup All purpose flour; 1/4 cup Almonds (toasted and chopped); 1 tsp Baking powder; 1/2 tsp Baking soda; 1/2 tsp Cinnamon; 1 tsp Vanilla; 1/2 tsp Salt; 1 cup Coconut sugar; 2/3 cup Oil; 3/4 cup Milk; 1 tsp Lemon juice; 1 cup Orange puree; 1/2 cup Yogurt

The muffins are perfect for an on the go breakfast. Filled with oats, nuts, fruit and yogurt it makes for a healthy and delicious treat. The whole wheat flour makes it filling. Have it with honey or butter if you are feeling indulgent.

Everyone needs a breakfast muffin recipe that ticks all the boxes. From easy to make to delicious to nutritious and not forgetting filling. I mean it is the most important meal of the day and believe me these muffins do not disappoint. When I made these for the first time I was a little surprised of how good they turned out as I used the whole orange to make the puree and didn’t have enough all purpose which is why I have substituted whole wheat. After a couple more tests and tweaks it turned out to perfect, with a fluffy crumb texture and anything but shy crunch with every bite.

The recipe comes together in a bowl but you could make it in your food processor. Once you puree your whole oranges, you can add the liquid ingredients, followed by the dry ingredients to make the muffin batter all in one place. Just do not over mix it, the trick with making whole wheat anything is that you do not want to over mix the mixture as that will develop gluten (unless you are making bread and you WANT to develop the gluten content). However You can transfer the puree into a large mixing bowl and bring the muffin batter together using a whisk. I prefer this method as it allows me to control how much I mix the batter. Like any muffin recipe, the rule of thumb is to not over mix it. You want to see a shaggy batter that is lumpy. No flour pocket, but lumpy – this ensures a fluffy muffin. So don’t be tempted to over mix it for your satisfaction.

There are a few substitutes there and even though these muffins are eggless you can replace the yogurt for 2 whole eggs and it works just fine. Let us look at a few ingredients:

Whole wheat flour – I have a used stone ground whole wheat flour that is great for baking cakes and breads. It is a high in gluten so I avoid over mixing it. You can use atta, spelt flour, cake flour, whole meal flour (stone ground or not), high fiber flour, all purpose flour in place of this.

Oat flour – It is purely oats that has been blended to form a flour. You can use sorghum flour, cornflour, tapioca flour, all purpose flour or rye flour. I would recommend keeping the ratios mentioned in the recipe intact.

All purpose flour – This helps the muffins get fluffy and light as whole wheat can get dense, if you want to leave it out you can add coconut flour, desiccated coconut or almond flour/nut flour here.

Almonds – I like adding crunch and you can add any nuts you like from walnuts to pecans to pistachios macadamia nuts.

Coconut sugar – Ive used a powdered coconut sugar here that looks like light brown sugar, you can use regular white sugar or brown sugar in this recipe. I have even made these using jaggery granules and grated fresh jaggery. I would refrain from using liquid sweeteners as it will affect the consistency of the muffin batter. You can use sweeteners like Stevia etc just be mindful of the level of sweetness as it can get too sweet depending on the oranges.

Oil – I love using olive oil here, not the expensive kind but the decent kind. You can use any vegetable oil that isn’t too heavy on flavor. In saying this coconut oil works well in this recipe too.

Milk – Full fat milk or skimmed is fine. I prefer full fat anything hence that’s what I use in the recipe. You can use almond milk, soya milk coconut milk or any mylks in general.

Orange puree – So I use oranges with the skin here but the skin of the oranges was not like leather thick. They were thin and easy to peel (if needed), similar to a mandarin. I like to quarter the oranges and remove the seeds, chop them up and blend them to a puree in the food processor until thick and it has a paste consistency. It won’t get entirely smooth but it should not have chunks of orange. I use a food processor but it blends well in my Nutri Bullet and Blender. You might to need to do this in batches depending on how small your blender is. If you don’t have a blender just use a sharp knife and start chopping until its fine – you won’t be able to achieve a paste but it will still work.

Yogurt – I have used a full fat flavorless yogurt here you can use greek yogurt as well. Coconut cream or soya yogurt works well in this recipe but if you eat eggs you can add 2 eggs in place of the yogurt and follow the recipe as suggested.

Baking – I like to bake these into large muffins hence I get around 8-9 muffins however if you make them smaller you will easily get 12 cupcakes. This batter can be baked into a 9×5 loaf tin or a 7inch round cake tin, the baking time will increase and hence you will bake the cakes for 28-20 mins until risen, golden and tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. If you are making this batter into a cake it can be steamed over the stove as well. In a large stock pot add a little water and place a wire rack at the bottom. Add the cake tin filled with the batter and cover with foil. Cover the stock with a lid and on medium heat steam the cake for 25-30 mins until risen and tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Don’t over fill the cake tin with batter as it will rise upon steaming and it shouldn’t get stuck to the foil. I would not recommend microwaving the cake or muffins.

Once the muffins are baked let them cool on wire rack. They are great while still warm with some butter, honey, yogurt or as it is. They last for a day at room temperature and for up to 3 days in the fridge. You can freeze them in zip lock bags for unto 2 weeks once completely cooled, when ready to serve, warm in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. Happy Baking Ninjas!