It’s such a treat to enjoy a freshly baked muffin, with morning coffee (or tea). For these muffins, I used both pastry flour (whole wheat) and unbleached flour. These Good Morning muffins were very quick and simple to make. The fresh squeezed orange juice and orange marmalade gives a just notes of citrus. The special topping of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg bakes to a nice golden crunch.
On most weekends, I like to make egg dishes for breakfast. This morning, I had an urge to bake muffins. This recipe has a couple of “indulgence’s— one stick of butter and a sugary topping. That’s my kind of treat! The orange marmalade and fresh squeezed orange juice is what most intrigued me about this recipe. Plus, my family loves muffins. Muffins take about 10-15 minutes to prepare, and take less than 20 minutes to bake and you don’t need to dig out a mixer. In fact, you want to make muffins by hand, or they’ll turn out tough and full of holes because the gluten in the flour has been worked too much.
I decided to use Organic Pastry Flour. If you’ve never used this whole wheat, it’s so worth trying. I have to say that I feel a tad bit less guilty about eating baked goods for breakfast, if I incorporate this. Let’s begin!
To start, the ratio I use is 25% pastry flour and 75% unbleached flour. I use my food processor to sift dry ingredients, because the blades aerates the dry ingredientsI added the flours, sugar and baking powder. Next, I added the cold butter and pulse it until the mixture looked crumbly. I added the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl…
I love shopping at my local World Market! When I spotted this Blood Orange jam, it was destined to be in this recipe. Truthfully, I don’t like orange marmalade on toast. I do like orange marmalade in pan sauces, as glazes or in baked goods. Next…
You need 1 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice. Add the juice to the marmalade and one teaspoon of real vanilla. Beat two eggs.
Pour the juice & marmalade into the dry ingredients…then the beaten eggs. Now gently mix the ingredients…. gently. Seriously, I just fold them in.
Preheat the oven to 375F and prep your muffin pans with non-stick baking spray. I use an ice cream scoop to easily measure each muffin. Look at those bits of blood orange!
I debated on adding the topping. I’m so glad that I did. You need sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and 1 Tbsp of melted butter. This makes more topping that you need, though. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of topping on each muffin. Bake 20-22 minutes, until done. My rule of thumb is to bake at 2-3 minutes less than what a recipe says to do. I can always bake it longer, but if too long– well I’m out of luck. So I set the timer to 18 minutes. They were perfectly baked and smelled heavenly. My husband was anxiously waiting with a smile on his face.
These puffed up beautifully. A trick I learned from King Arthur Flour is to run a knife around each muffin and carefully lay them at an angle. They’re hot, so be careful. This prevents the bottoms of the muffins from becoming soggy. After a couple of minutes, I put them on a wire cooling rack.
Good Morning Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin Pan
Ingredients
Topping Ingredients:
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour optional (can use ALL flour)
- 3 cups unbleached flour
- 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick)
- 2 cups orange marmalade
- 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 whole eggs beaten
Topping Ingredients:
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon melted butter
- 1/4 teaspoons salt
- wheat germ optional for the topping and "crunch"
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- With a food processor, process the flour, sugar and baking powder, to “aerate” the dry ingredients. Or, you can sift together flour, sugar, and baking powder. Place in a mixing bowl.
- Cut the butter into small pieces, and pulse it into the dry ingredients– until crumbly. This takes about a dozen short pulses. Or, you can use a pastry cutter to mix in butter (or butter/shortening if desired).
- Mix marmalade, orange juice, and vanilla in a small bowl. Pour into dry ingredients.
- Beat eggs and pour into the bowl. Mix all ingredients together gently, using fewer than 10 large strokes.
For the topping:
- In a small bowl, mix topping ingredients.
Bake:
- Spray the muffin pan with non-stick baking spray. Fill muffin pans with batter. An ice cream scoop makes this easy to do. Sprinkle 1 heaping teaspoon of topping ingredients over each muffin.
- Sprinkle wheat germ over the top for extra crunch. (optiona)
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until done.
- TIP: Using a paring knife, loosen each muffin. Carefully move each move at an angle for a few minutes– this ensures that you won't have soggy muffin bottoms! Next, remove the muffins from the pan and cool on wire rack. Eat warm or at room temperature.
Notes
I wouldn't dare make these, because I would eat them all!
How lucky to receive a year's worth of eggs!
You had me at snickerdooles! Looks great!
Wow – blood orange jam! That's new for me. How cool! Your Good Morning Muffins are a towering creation!
Yeah I don't do shortening either. It makes me feel more virtuous about using a stick of butter.
These muffins have been on my radar for a while also! Now I just need to find 11 other people to pawn them off on..
Oh these look divine! I have wanted to try these for quite some time!! Thanks for sharing!
These muffins looks wonderful. I agree anything from PW is usually awesome. I love the idea of using whole wheat and maybe even olive oil..just to make them a bit healthier, but I am sure they are super with that butter in there. Thanks for sharing:)
World Market is a favorite of mine too, but I don't like orange marmalade of any kind in any thing, so I'll admire your muffind from afar. So glad you added the crumb because they look so good!
Those muffins are so gorgeous and they look so scrumptious!!!
Love,
Lia.
World Market is definitely a fun place to go and check out some tasty ingredients! The muffins look gorgeous. I would definitely have to eat two of them 😉
What a beautiful job you did on these muffins! I've been eyeing this recipe myself from Ree's cookbook – you have pushed me closer to actually baking them ASAP! 🙂
Looks wonderful!!
Doesn't "Good Eats" have the best tips ever?! Things you wouldn't even think of, but yet so simple.
Enjoy the muffins!!
I want to find some of that marmalade!
Now this is my idea of what a muffin should be! I love orange marmalade so this is a must try recipe.
Those muffins look absolutely delish! YUM
I am a newer follower of your blog and I LOVE it! Check out my blog – I have an award for you on it 🙂
Nice recipe!
These look like a lovely way to start the day!
Love PW's recipes….these look perfect for this Saturday! Hope you are having a wonderful summer!
Hey hard-working lady … u deserve to have someone else cook these nummy muffins for you … just put your feet up and savor the weekend!
Free eggs for a YEAR??? Sweet deal!
They look fantastic Debby and I'm wondering how to up the orange flavor.
Btw, that marmalade was a score!
Happy Friday!
~ingrid
Perfect with a cup of coffee! I'll have to give these a try. How'd you win a year of eggs??
Loving the blood orange jam. Can't wait to give this divine muffin a try!