Next to chocolate, my favorite flavor is orange. I love orange. I have been craving a 50/50 cupcake…..orange and cream. It is one of my favorite cupcakes. But I didn’t want all that sugary sweet. So I was going to make orange scones. But then I realized I was out of butter. WHAT??!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. How can that be?? I am never out of butter…..it’s a tragedy, I tell ya!! So, what to do….what to do…I squeezed up some big ol home grown oranges and decided to make orange muffins. I made up a recipe and crossed my fingers. I used lots and lots of fresh grated orange zest. Ohhhhhhhhh, I love that smell of fresh orange zest…….so fragrant. I love seeing all those little speckly bits of orange bits in the batter. The batter with no butter. Bits in the butterless batter is better. A butterless batter is better with bits. A no butter batter is better with bits. Haahahah, sorry. I couldn’t resist. Kinda fun to say. Oh just one more time…..a bit of butter may be better in a batter with bits. Ok, I will stop now.

So, since oranges are loaded with vitamin C, I think this muffin is healthy…..maybe…ok, maybe not healthy per se, but it sure is tasty. Go pick some oranges from your tree, or sneak over to the neighbor’s yard and pick some. Make a batch of these soon. YUM.

Orange Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup orange juice
1 Tblsp milk
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
2 Tblsp fresh grated orange zest

Orange Glaze
2 cups of powdered sugar
Add enough orange juice to get the consistency you like, approx. 2 tablespoons give or take.
1 tsp orange zest (or more)
Mix until smooth and set aside.

Orange Sugar
3 tblsp granulated sugar
1 tblsp orange zest
Mix together with a fork till well mixed

Heat oven to 375. Lightly spray muffin pan (bottoms only) with non stick spray, or lightly grease with oil. You can use baking cups if you prefer.

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the orange juice, oil, milk, zest and egg. Add the wet to the dry flour mixture. Stir JUST until dry stuff is moistened. It’s ok if your mixture has lumps…..it should. Lumps are good. Fill the cups 3/4 full. If you are using the orange sugar topping, sprinkle on top of muffins and bake for approx. 17 minutes for the extra large muffins and 12-14 minutes for the regular size . Check with a toothpick cuz you DONT want dry muffins. Blekh. Cool just for a bit in the pan. Remove and drizzle with orange glaze if you want. Sometimes I like them plain, sometimes I like a little glaze. Sometimes I like orange sugar topping. Any of those are yummy.

Makes 4 very large muffins, or 8 regular size.