How to make healthy choices every day

Marvelous Muffins

I am not a big baker.
I do not bake because when I do, I tend to eat the whole batch of warm whatever-it-is and wind up with a serious tummy ache. A fresh, chewy cookie or muffin is my absolute undoing, so I don’t often offer myself the temptation. However, two things happened over the past week: I completed a major project at work (therefore I needed a reward) and I found this very healthy recipe for orange-blueberry muffins. At first I was skeptical that they would be delicious and satisfying, but they delivered the goods, with tons of fruit and fiber to boot! I hate to use the term “guilt-free” when it comes to food because that emotion should never be associated with eating, ever, but why not? I’m gonna say it! These are hip-friendly, tummy lovin’ muffins…and I ate three when they came out of the oven!

Ingredients
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/3 cup olive oil or butter
1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
2 Tbs. Tahini
Grated zest of 1 organic, un-waxed orange
2 cups whole grain flour (spelt, kamut, or whole wheat)
1 cup rolled oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed
nut or seed of your choice (optional)
–> pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts etc.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly oil a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. Put the orange juice, oil, syrup, tahini, and orange zest into a medium bowl and whisk until well combined.
3. Mix the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl until well combined. Add the orange juice mixture and combine, using as few strokes as possible so you do not over mix the batter. Fold in the blueberries.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each approximately 3/4 full. Sprinkle with nuts or seeds. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (about 20-25 minutes). Let the muffins cool before removing them from the pan.
Or, do what I do: take a spoon and desperately dig them out like a complete maniac.

These muffins freeze beautifully. Eat half while they are still warm (you think I’m joking?), and once cooled, put the others in a thick plastic bag in the freezer. Take one out in the morning and put it in your bag for an afternoon snack at work. You will thank yourself for being so prepared and healthy!

This recipe comes from one of the best cookbooks I have ever read. It’s called “Enlightened Eating” by Caroline Dupont. Pick up a copy, find food nirvana.

Copyright 2012 My New Roots at mynewroots.blogspot.com


31 thoughts on “Marvelous Muffins”

  • Yes, there is something off about the quantities in this recipe. This muffin recipe comes from the book “Enlightened Eating”. And they are sooooo good! I have recently moved and cannot find my book that I usually refer to for these muffins and was desperately tryigg bc to find it online. If I can find it I’ll try to see what is missing here.

  • The receipt at heart is great, love the flavours and that they are healthy, but also I also made them twice and found, they bearly made 9 small cupcake side muffins and the mix was dry, not a ‘batter’ more like a cake mix.

  • These are not sweet, which I like. I made them exactly how the recipes says, and they did turn out dry tasting. Perhaps some shredded carrots next time would help with this? I still recommend making them

  • I love all of your baking recipes but I think there is something wrong with the measurement of this recipe, it’s way too dry, even after I reduced the amount of flour and oats. Can you please send some advice how I can adjust to the measurement? It came out like wet cookies, is it supposed to be dry like this? Thank you for the advice!

  • After reading the comments I was anticipating a very dry muffin, but these were absolutely delicious! After mixing the dry ingredients I realized I didn’t have any blueberries left and so they were just plain orange, pumpkin-seed muffins and they were lovely. A friend and I ate them straight out of the oven for lunch with a big green juice! Thanks Sarah xoxo

  • Made these yesterday and overall the flavor is pretty good but I did not read the comments before making, and agree that they are very, very dry as-is. I used olive oil and whole wheat flour. They don’t look anything like the photo (moist). I have to feel like there is a mistake somewhere in the recipe?

  • Have made these before and found them quite dry so when making them again today I turned them into cookies. They were fantastic! Used the same measurements and method except I left out the blueberries and added an extra 1/4 cup of oats, heaped tablespoon of flour and a little bit of shredded coconut. Rolled into balls, flattened with a fork and baked at 160 (fan-forced) for 10 mins and they turned out great, let me know if you give it a try 🙂

  • I just tried these and wish I had read the comments first about adding other ingredients to make it more moist. I did add a bit more oil and splash of milk, but would have liked a but more moistness and fruit. Will try again 🙂

  • Ces muffins sont spéciaux. La pâte est très sèche et la texture un peu crumble, comme plusieurs ont déjà dit. Au bout de 25 minutes, ça ne semblait pas encore cuit.
    J’avais suivi l’avis de plusieurs et mis moins de flocons d’avoine. J’ai ajouté également un peu de lait d’amandes.J’ai ajouté aussi des pépites de bon chocolat noir. J’ai cuit mes muffins en deux batchs (puisque ça m’en a donné environ 18). La première je l’ai finalement cuite environ 30-35 minutes et ça a donné un résultat intéressant, comme si tout mon muffin était du crumble bien croustillant. À la pâte restante, j’ai ajouté un oeuf et les muffins étaient parfaits.

  • I usually adapt any recipes for gluten-free without any trouble, but there is something wrong with this recipe. Way too dry. There should be more liquid or less flour, definitely.
    Would make a nice crumble, no more. 🙁

  • I just made these. Followed the recipe to a tee and my batter was more like play dough and less like muffin. I baked them anyway and much to my surprise and delight they turned out BEAUTIFULLY. Lovely and moist, not too sweet, very very fun. I will be interested to try some of the suggestions above for decreasing flour and oats next time. Thank you 🙂

  • Great recipe, but I also had to add a lot of water to thin out the batter. Will try it next time with less flour, thanks everyone for the tips!

  • These were good, but they were a little drier than I would have liked as others have expressed. However, they do become a little more moist the next few days if stored on the counter. And for anyone making these in the future, next time I would use only 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cup flour in total and only 3/4 cup oats as Deborah suggested – this should help yield a more moist crumb. Making sure to add fruit, like berries or pear (I used pear), helps too.

  • I just made these and used oat flour. While they looked lovely they crumbled when I bit into it. I am thinking I might need to make a fig paste to hold these together

  • I too am finding that there isn’t enough wet ingredient to mix this properly. I added water until I could get all the dry to mix but that involved a lot of stirring which I think made things heavy and dense in the end.
    I am looking for the perfect muffin recipe and if there is something I am missing this recipe may be it.

  • This recipe is an absolute winner!! Tastes so Delish! Can’t wait to make them again. Thanks for the great recipes

  • I just made these muffins and they taste amazing!!! I didn’t have any blueberries on hand so I mushed up 2 organic bananas and added a cup of bran instead of oats-I can’t stop eating…they’re delicious with the right amount of sweet. Thank you!

  • Hi Sarah

    These muffins turned out wonderful for me. I have tried many healthy muffin receipes but didnot like the taste they had nutrition but no flavour. I did tweak the receipe a bit. I had to add 1/3 cup of milk and it turned out delish they were gone in 15 MINUTES..

  • I had the same problem with not having enough liquid to get the right consistency. I used 1 cup OJ instead of half but its still more of a dough mixture… They’re in the oven now so ill see how they end up.
    Oh I also used coconut oil instead of olive oil, I wouldn’t think that would be a problem though…??

    Hope they’re good I’m craving one with a nice cup of chai 🙂

    Liz

  • I made these today, and this recipe should have come with a warning, they are like cupcake crack!! So addictive and moreish! Thanks for the recipe

  • Hi there!
    I have tried this recipe twice now, and have had a bit of trouble. It just seems that there is far too much dry ingredient, for how much wet ingredient there is. Has anyone else had trouble? I had to add a bunch of water at the end the first time, and the second time, I added a cup less flour (which turned out really crumbly and strange).

    I know these will be really good muffins once I get it right!

    Thanks!

  • I’ve made these muffins twice now! The first time I followed your yummy recipe exactly, and the second time (one hour ago) I used one cup of some stale granola with goji berries I made two weeks ago instead of the cup of oats and added some extra goji berries instead of the blueberries because I don’t like to throw food away.They turned out wonderful as well. In matter of fact, I think I am going to grab another one while they’re still warm! Thanks 🙂

  • I love this recipe and the post as I am the same way with baking. I very rarely do it. When I do it is healthy at least with very similar recipes to this. No white stuff especially! And, like you, I probably would have had to eat three. These look amazing. I love your site!

    Dawn at http://www.floridacoastalcooking.com

  • i made these muffins yesterday. you’re right, they’re delicious hot, right out of the oven! i love that they aren’t very sweet. the orange peel and blueberries really make these something else 🙂

  • I can totally relate to that…no matter what it is that I bake if I know it’s healthy I seem to devour the whole thing!!!!

    Eating is bliss…..and these are definitely delicious:-)

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