Tara from Smells Like Home chose this week’s recipe for TWD. As intrigued as I was to try my hand at madeleines, I knew our tiny kitchen could not hold yet another pan, so I took the offered out and made a recipe that had previously been made for TWD before I joined. I needed something that I could make in a short period of time since we are leaving for our vacation to Chicago this week and life is a bit hectic right now. Muffins fit the bill, and since I was so over the moon with Dorie’s lemon poppy seed muffins I figured these would be just as good. Sadly they were not.
Tyler ate the first one and when I asked how it was he said “it doesn’t taste like anything.” Sure enough. It tasted kind of like a bland corn muffin with some blueberries thrown in the mix. The orange flavor was almost completely absent and it is not a sweet muffin so it was left with very little flavor. What a bummer! The culprit is likely the orange I used. I searched through bins of oranges to find the brightest, orangest one, but it still wasn’t very orange. It was juicy inside, but the zest was not as fragrant as I had hoped it would be. It is just not a good time for oranges! Most of the ones at the store looked very sickly. I may try this recipe again when good oranges can be found!
Head on over to the blogroll to see the madeleines and other alternate TWD recipes!
Orange Berry Muffins (from Dorie Greenspan “Baking: From My Home to Yours” p. 3)
Ingredients:
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
About 3/4 cup buttermilk
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, preferably, or frozen (not thawed)
Decorating sugar, for topping (optional)
Directions:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.
Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 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 strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough – the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.
i’m sorry you weren’t able to make the madeleines this week and furthermore that your orange berry muffins didn’t turn out as you had hoped! i made these a couple of weeks ago (no pics/no post though) and everyone raved about them. i used the zest from a huge orange so that may have been the difference.
I made these too, but did a variation with limes which sounds like it had more flavor than yours. They still look wonderful!
The same thing happened to me. I think that the next time I make this I will add some spice or maybe some lemon extract.
Someone else mentioned that they needed a kick. I almost made these but went with the quintuple chocolate brownies. I would definitely recommend those.
aww sorry these didn’t turn out…!! i have used the lemon poppyseed recipe –adapted to make cupcakes and LOVE them. everyone raves about them. so in case you feel adventurous next time, check out my lemon cupcakes on my blog!
sorry these muffins didn’t come exactly right, but enjoy your vaca to chicago!
Bummer about the taste not living up to expectations, but your muffins look fantastic! I’m especially jealous given that any time I make muffins with blueberries I wind up breaking a few and get blue muffins as a result
Too bad you were not wowed by these. I have not yet made them, but look forward to trying them. Hopefully.
Sorry they weren’t quite what you hoped, but they look great!
Good to know about the flavor. If I make these, I may add something to boost the citrus flavor.
They sure look good, at least!
Well that stinks. I made the recipe this week too and my little family loved them. You should give it another try when you find better oranges.
They look pretty though.
That’s too bad that these didn’t come out as tasty as you were expecting. It seems like such a good recipe, too!
They may not have tasted as yummy as you wanted, but they sure look good!
Oh no, sorry these prove to be tasty – I really wanted these to be delish as they are on my list (very long list0 of things to make! Hx
Bummer you weren’t a fan. I read another TWDer do a strawberry-lime variation that sounds SO tasty! Maybe give that one a try?
Clara @ I♥food4thought
the orange flavor was great in these but they were not overly sweet (and i like my sweets sweet!) personal preference, i think, as many loved these
that’s too bad that you didn’t enjoy the muffins. So frustrating when citrus fruits don’t give their all…
Too bad about those muffins. Perhaps you should try the madeleines anyway but with another pan? Not traditional but still really good!