Whole Wheat Muffins Marbled With Ginger Orange Raisin Puree & Topped With Orange Icing

Several weeks ago, I posted about preserving a huge quantity of raisins close to their due date by making a puree. A small batch was done separately, one spiced with ginger and enlivened with orange juice which I envisoned would eventually marble whole wheat muffins. The vision has been realised and here they are! And they are beyond fabulous, fluffy, rich with egg, butter, and milk, sweetened with maple sugar and the oh so tasty ginger orange raisin puree, not to mention the extra oomph of orange icing.

Ingredients

makes ten (batter filled to the brim which is my preference) to twelve muffins (batter filled 3/4 to the brim)

• Flour, whole wheat, 240 g (2 American 8 fluid oz cups)
• Sugar, 100 g ( 1/2 American 8 fluid oz cup/8 T)
• Sugar, brown, (1/2 American 8 fluid oz cup/8T) or in my case stir in 1.5 tsp of maple syrup into white sugar
• Baking soda, 1 tsp
• Egg, l
• Vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp
• Milk, whole, 1 American 8 fluid oz cup/16 T)
• Orange ginger raisin puree, 4 T (recipe is here)
• Orange juice and icing sugar depending on the amount and consistency of the finished icing (I use 3 T of juice to about 9 T of confectioner's sugar)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Liberally brush a 12 muffin tin pan with butter, making sure each well is well doused along with a bit just outside their perimeters. 

If opting for maple sugar instead of brown sugar, stir in 1.5 T of maple syrup to 1/2 cup of sugar and reserve.

Using either an electric aid (in my case, a stick mixer) or elbow grease, cream butter, sugars, and baking soda until resembling mashed potatoes.

In a separate small bowl beat the egg with the vanilla and add to creamed mixture. Beat in the milk, and then gradually the flour until it is all barely incorporated. It's time to fill the muffin tins.

Fill the tin 1/4 the way and drop about 3 to 4 small amounts of the raisin puree. Repeat until the well is either 3/4 filled or in my preference, to the brim.

With a wooden skewer inserted right to the bottom of a well, swirl the batter, Turn the pan a quarter, and repeat.

Bake around 17 minutes or until centres are springy to the touch and/or a skewer is inserted and comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for a minute or two and then work carefully around each well with a butter knife. Turn the pan over and gently shake out the muffins. Let cool.

For the icing start with one tablespoon of orange juice and add enough icing sugar to get the consistency desired. The topping can be quite thick where it is spread on or it can be close to watery so it soaks into the muffin which is what I did.

Best whole wheat muffin ever! It's quite sweet, so besides gracing the breakfast/snack table, it would do just as well if served for dessert. The surplus chez nous was frozen and I can't wait to eat one of these soooooooooooon. Egads, they are DELICIOUS.

À la prochaine!

Muffins with Maple Walnut Cinnamon Topping

To me a true muffin doesn't have a cake crumb, but rather innards composed of a fluffy, honeycombed texture. The batter used is similar to very thick griddlecake batter. The same astuce applies: leave the batter lumpy which involves hardly any mixing.

Ingredients
12  medium muffins baked in 80 ml/2.6 fluid oz capacity tins

• Flour, white, 280 g (2 American cups of 8 fluid oz each)
• Baking powder, 3 tsp
• Salt, 1/2 tsp
• Sugar, 4 T
• Maple syrup, 1 tsp
• Egg, 1, slightly beaten
• Milk, whole, 250 ml (8 fluid oz)
• Butter, melted, 60 g/4 T
• Cinnamon, 1/4 tsp
• Walnuts, finely chopped, 2 T

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C/375 degrees F. Butter the tins well. Add the maple syrup to the sugar.

Blend well to get a moist, light beige mixture. Reserve two tablespoons for the topping.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Pour in milk, beaten egg, and melted butter. Stir just until everything is moistened.

Perfectly lumpy batter

Fill the tins a little more than halfway.  Mix together the reserved maple sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon. Sprinkle a teaspoon on each muffin and lightly press down.

Bake around twenty minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean. Wait about a minute and then turn the tins over a suitable surface. Most should come out. For the reluctant ones, give a nice thump on the back of the said tins. They are so comforting when served warm. As is their fragrance wafting about. Any leftovers can be reheated in a low oven or split and toasted under the broiler.

They taste good cold too! The texture becomes closer to that of an English muffin (crumpet)

With your hands break apart a plump muffin height-wise  so as to afford the sweet butter some fjords into which it can melt.

A drizzle of maple syrup wouldn't be out of order

The soft, moist, honeycombed insides can be be seen clearly when not filled with melting butter.

They also freeze well

There was just two days since the beginning of February when it hasn't rained. Those were the days I managed to spray the peach tree while it was still dormant and get the newly arrived strawberries in the ground. So much more to sow and plant but the rain just will not stop so the soil can dry out to a workable state. Dirac the Young Cat has restricted his outdoor activity mostly to brief romps, preferring to stay inside.

A happy, dry paw points out the volume containing the entry on tigers

À la prochaine!

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RELATED LINKS

Gastropod (podcast) on the maple syrup boom plus a summary & photos