Orange Cream Cheese Muffins

Orange Cream Cheese Muffins, a deliciously dense muffin.

Ingredients:
1/2 small navel orange, cut into 6 to 8 pieces (including the peel)
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature, broken into 3 to 4 pieces
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly firm
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F and Grease muffin pan or line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Fit food processor with steel blade and process the orange pieces until finely chopped.  Add the cream cheese and process. Scrape down the bowl and process again.  The mixture should retain some orange texture.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the machine and add the cream cheese/orange mixture, then mix on medium speed for one minute. Add the sugar in a steady stream, then blend in the eggs and yolk one at a time, allowing each egg to incorporate before adding another. Add the vanilla.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, mixing just until blended after each addition.
6. Portion level 1/4 cup scoops of the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and the tops are springy to the touch. To ensure even baking, toward the end of baking time, rotate the pans top to bottom and front to back. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

I got the inspiration for this recipe from the Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins and More Cookbook. The original recipe calls for a Pepita Crunch topping, well as you may or may not know, depending on how much you read my posts=), I don’t like nuts in my food, especially baked goods! I like eating nuts, just by themselves, So what intrigued me about the recipe then? Well, it was the cream cheese…I Heart Cream Cheese…I always say if it has cream cheese I will love it. I knew I wanted to try the muffins by themselves so I omitted the Pepita Crunch Topping.

So instead of the topping I decided to take the muffins out of the oven five minutes before they were done and do an egg wash on them because I am neurotic about wasting things and since the muffins had 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk I was left with an egg white. I beat the egg white and brushed the muffin tops and then sprinkled on some decorating sugar. You could also use rock sugar or raw sugar if you desire to do this, otherwise if you don’t care about wasting the egg white, leave them be because they would still be absolutely wonderful without the added step.

*Camala*

Orange Blueberry Pecan Muffins

These muffins are unbelievably orangey-(if that is a word) and packed full of blueberries and just enough nuts for crunch….  I love blueberries so I always put a lot into the recipes I have—so if you are tempted to add more, trust me—you wont need too!!!

Preheat oven to 375F degrees.  Put muffin cups in 12 cup pan.
Mix in med bowl the following wet ingredients:
3/4 cup Blueberry Kefir  ( buttermilk or yogurt will work)
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
2 Tablespoons orange juice
2  1/2 Tablespoons grated orange peel
IN SEPERATE BOWL add the following dry ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 & 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 over full cup of chopped pecans

Blend dry ingredients together and fold into the wet ingredients.
Fold in 1 and 1/2 cup blueberries.
Fill muffin cups full… and bake for 25 to 30 minutes..

Not too sweet and lots of flavor…. Its hard to have just one!!!!   I cant do it!!
And sooooo easy to make….

*Christine*