Mini muffins!
A while back I made some delicious Meyer Lemon Tea Muffins, only I didn’t realize they were supposed to be mini muffins so I only ended up with 9 of them. Since they were delicious, I decided to give them another shot, this time using blood oranges instead of lemons. And behold: mini muffins. Delicious, soft, fluffy blood orange tea muffins.
I started with some lovely-looking blood oranges I was very surprised to find at our local grocery store. Such an exotic ingredient for the store across the street.
I zested. The recipe called for 1 1/4 teaspoon, but I used slightly more than 1 1/2. I juiced the oranges as well, so everything would be ready.
I took out yet another of my little glass bowls, this one for the eggs. I beat the yolks until light and lemon-colored, which really meant I just beat them until I thought they were beaten enough. I am not completely confident that I can discern the difference between beaten-egg-yolk-colored and lemon-colored, but I did my best.
In the stand mixer, I creamed the butter, sugar and yogurt.
Once I was satisfied with the texture, I moved the bowl away from the mixer and added the beaten yolks, folding them in.
This should really be called The Recipe Of Many Bowls, What am I up to now, 5? I took out another one for the dry ingredients: whole wheat white flour, baking powder, and salt.
Then it was just a matter of adding and stirring, adding and stirring. I added some of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/yogurt bowl, then some juice and zest, then flour, then juice & zest, mixing just until incorporated after each addition. The yogurt gave it some unsightly lumps, but eventually it all came together.
Then it was time for the egg whites to have their moment in the sun. I scrubbed out the stand mixer bowl meticulously and dumped in the whites, then beat and beat and beat and beat until I got stiff peaks.
Stiff peaks achieved! I plopped the whites into the batter bowl. It’s amazing the volume you can get out of two little egg whites.
I folded that in, and the batter got a lot lighter in color.
I distributed it as evenly as I could into the mini muffin tins. I still had to stretch to get 24 out of the batch, I knew some of them were going to be very small. Runty, even.
I sprinkled a light cinnamon-nutmeg-sugar mixture across the top of each muffin, then put them in the oven. They were done in about 15 minutes, much longer than I’d expect for mini muffins.
These are just as delicious as the Meyer Lemon version. They’re 2 P+ each, but if you have two, they’re only 3 P+, which is a nice bonus. Mostly the bonus is that they’re light and fluffy and tangy and delicious.
LEMON TEA MUFFINS RECIPE (original)
MEYER LEMON TEA MUFFINS (my version)
My take: Blood Orange Mini Tea Muffins
ingredients:
2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/8 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 cup all purpose flour (unbleached)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 tablespoons blood orange juice
1 1/2 teaspoons grated blood orange zest
for the topping:
1 tablespoon cane sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash of grated nutmeg
directions:
Juice and zest the blood oranges.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees — you will reduce the temperature before baking — and grease or line your mini muffin tins.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with a whisk until light and lemon colored.
In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and yogurt together. (I used the stand mixer.) Fold in the beaten yolks.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add this to the creamed mixture incrementally, alternating with the lemon juice and zest, beating just until combined as you go.
Beat the egg whites in a stand mixer until stiff peaks form, then fold into the batter. (Note: If you used a stand mixer, you will need to scrub out the bowl and dry it completely, or your egg whites won’t do what they’re supposed to do.)
Spoon the batter into your mini muffin pan and sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon/nutmeg mixture on top.(It’s okay if you don’t use all of it, it’s really about your own preference and taste.) Reduce the oven temperature to 350. Bake for 12-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for five minutes, then remove to a wire rack.
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