Baked Sunday Mornings: Orange Almond Blueberry Muffins

The recipe on the Baked Sunday Mornings schedule this week is "Chocolate Chip Cookies." I made the cookies back in 2017 and didn't care for them at all (you can read my post about the cookies here). So instead of making the cookie again, I'm going rogue this week and I decided to make the "Orange Almond Blueberry Muffins" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.

The muffin recipe is easy. You combine all of the wet ingredients (orange juice, orange zest, milk, egg whites, and melted butter) in one bowl; combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, ground almonds, toasted sliced almonds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in another bowl; and mix the wet into the dry. Finally, you fold in blueberries. The recipe says you should use a greased muffin pan but I always think it's easier to use paper liners instead. After I divided the batter between the muffin cups, I pushed a few more blueberries into the top each muffin and added a few sliced almonds for decoration.
These muffins were generously sized, with nice domed tops. I was surprised how strong the orange flavor was (it was more prominent than the blueberries), but my favorite part was the almonds in the muffin and on top. I loved the crunch from the nuts and it probably helps that I love almonds. I think a little bit of almond extract might be a nice touch as well, but the muffins were quite tasty as is. And I was surprised that they were not dry even though they were relatively lean. The recipe yields twelve muffins and requires only half a stick of butter. I don't make muffins often, but I would make these again.

Recipe: "Orange Almond Blueberry Muffins" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Rentao Poilafito.

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