Orange date mini muffins and muffin tops

These are probably my favourite muffins and I have been making them for years, not disclosing how many. It is made with a whole orange chopped up and mixed with the batter. They have a nice tangy flavour and soft, light texture. I have a dairy free vegan version that I will post the next time I make them.

Are you a muffin top kind of person? If so, join the club. I like muffins, but only the top part and that was even before I ever saw the Seinfeld muffin top episode. I make one batch of these muffins and bake them two ways: six go into a muffin top pan and the rest go into mini muffin pan. The mini muffins are as good as muffin tops and I like their one-two bite size. These little guys are also nice as an appetizer if you slice them in half and put something savoury in between and sandwich it up again with a small spoonful of savoury jam. I used to make these often for entertaining but sort of forgot about it until now.

Enjoy the muffins, I am sure they will become a part of your muffin repertoire.

Orange date mini muffins and muffin tops

Makes 6 muffin tops and 24 mini muffins.

Ingredients:

1 orange with peel, cut into chunks

2/3 cup orange juice

1/2 cup chopped dates
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil

2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

Place dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda) in a bowl.

Place orange pieces and orange juice in a food processor and process until chopped.

Add dates, eggs and oil to the orange mixture and process until combined. Don’t over process.

Pour the orange mixture into the flour mixture and mix with a spatula until no dry flour is visible. Do not over mix, the batter should be a little lumpy, not completely smooth.

Fill a muffin top pan with ice cream scoops of the batter (mine has room for 6 muffin tops).

Use the rest of the batter to fill a mini muffin pan (I get enough to fill a 24 mini muffin pan).

Bake at 375F until done.

Orange-date muffins

You may also like these muffins:

Blueberry buttermilk muffins

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