Orange Blueberry Muffins: Feeling humbled

I consider myself to be a good baker. I bake often, so I can tell that I am consistent in quality, flavor, and product. I have confidence in my skills when it comes to producing baked goods, whether it be cookies, coffee cake, or cupcakes.

But then I borrowed Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours from the library, and I was immediately humbled. In this book there are more baking recipes that I am afraid to do than I am willing. I found myself quite intimidated by quite a few of the recipes in there, especially the layer cakes as I've decided that they are the next frontier I need to conquer. I drooled over many of the recipes but found myself scared to try.

But I was determined and wanted to make SOMETHING from the book, so I settled on some muffins. The muffins are not hard to make and are straightforward in their execution. They were extremely delicious and I was happy to present these to Daughter #2's class as part of Daughter #2's birthday celebration at school. They are slightly orangey, very blueberry, and just really yummy. I love that they aren't sickly sweet and instead the orange and the blueberry shine.

I prepared all the dry ingredients, grated my orange peel and squeezed my juice the night before. The muffins came together the morning of very easily.

Orange Berry Muffins (From Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours)
Makes 12 regular muffins or 24 mini muffins (which is what I made for Daughter's class)

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
about 3/4 cup of buttermilk (you will combine orange juice and buttermilk to make 1 cup of liquid)
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 blueberries - fresh or frozen, not thawed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare muffin pan with either spray or paper liners.

Pour orange juice into glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to mjake 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 is strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry mixture and a whisk or spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. The matter may be lumpy and bubbly and that is the way it should be. Stir in blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Printable recipe

Partially consumed, so you can see the inside

Fabulous baking ideas, including simple ones.

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