Muffin Mondays | Orange Date Muffins

Sometime back I saw lovely Anita doing a post on Muffin Mondays. Now if there is anything I like baking after the yeasted breads its the muffins, so I checked with her about it and soon got a mail from Anuradha of Bakers Street on the details. And the recipe that was selected was my favourite too… orange date muffins.. anything which has zest gotta be good, I did a happy gig and as usual forgot about it till yesterday evening. when I exchanged a couple of messages with her and promised to send her the pictures latest by today noon. Got up baked them early morning and sent her a picture around 10 am and forgot to post it on my blog (I must be getting old to forget so much right?) Anyways thankfully I didnt forget any of the ingredients and the muffins turned out yummm

Ojas had these in breakfast along with some milk and loved them so much that he has taken them to school too, and as these are whole wheat and with so less butter and sugar I eat one just now with my the evening tea too, guiltless indulgence

This is the recipe as sent by Anuradha

Orange Date Muffins: 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup light brown sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 teaspoon grated orange rind  1/3 cup fresh orange juice 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled 2/3 cup buttermilk 1 egg 2/3 cup chopped dates 2/3 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped 2 tablespoons sugar (optional) 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Instructions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a 12 hole muffin tin with liners or grease and set aside.  In a large bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a measuring jar or medium bowl, beat together the orange juice, buttermilk, egg and melted butter. Add egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Fold in the orange rind,  dates and walnuts. Evenly divide the mixture among the 12 muffins cups.  If you desire a topping then mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it on the top. Place in the oven and bake for about 15 to20 minutes, or until very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool. Makes 12 regular-sized muffins. Source:  From a Baker’s Kitchen: Techniques and Recipes for Professional Quality Baking in the Home Kitchen

I did a couple of changes to the recipe though, one I made half the original recipe, so it gave me just 6 muffins, the second change I made was to replace brown sugar with honey, I didn’t have any brown sugar at home and instead of just going ahead and using plain white sugar I used about 1/4 cup of honey and as I was adding a liquid ingredient in place of sugar I used only 2tbsp of butter instead of what was mentioned in the recipe. Also I didnt put any walnuts in it as I had dates stuffed with nuts which I used for making these.

What a delight these were, N has already asked me why I didnt make more  

To see the rest of the Muffins this Monday go here