On a recent bout of cold and flu and sore throat at my house, I managed to down a few litres of orange juice, apple and mango juice, and cranberry juice; a few punnets of strawberries; and about 6 kg of oranges. Yep, I’m not kidding. I’m very particular with taking medication that if I can help it, I will not take any medication save for the occasional paracetamol and anti-histamine for my hay fever. Maybe it’s the nurse in me that doesn’t want to expose myself to medications any further than what I have already been exposed to in the past (trust me, I’ve had passive exposure to some weird concoction of antibiotics all those years while working in the hospital).
Anyway, to make the long story short, I’d rather treat myself naturally by eating healthily and consuming large amounts of Vitamin C before heading towards the road to Codral-land. But now that we’re better, I have been left with a 2kg bag of oranges rotting lying on my benchtop with nowhere to go. My sister gave up on eating them ages ago because we both got sick and hence both overdosed ourselves with Vitamin C. So, what to do with a bunch of ripe navel oranges before they go to waste?
Orange Poppy Seed Muffins
I’m usually not a fan of citrusy cakes and stuff, but this recipe has been a tried and tested recipe of mine. It’s actually one of the first few recipes I’ve studied when learning to bake. I love the crumbly, sweet-tangy texture of it with a few crackly bits on top. The cream cheese is literally the icing on the cake – I have been generous enough to make a big batch of frosting because I know that the recipients of these muffin babies are huge fans of cream cheese frosting. Oh, and maybe some for me too (the cook needs to be rewarded too, ya know!).
I have published a previous recipe here for the same muffins, so I’ll just copy it down again. I’ve tweaked it around a bit because I only had 3 eggs left, but the results were still fabulous!
Orange & Poppy Seed Muffins
Recipe from The Australian Women’s Weekly – ninemsn.com.au
Makes 12-16 muffins
3 large oranges
1/3 cup poppy seeds
250g butter, softened
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
- Pre-heat oven to160 deg C. Line your muffin tray with paper cases.
- Grate the rind from the oranges. Squeeze the fruit juice – pulp and all!
- Combine the juice, rind, and poppy seeds in a bowl. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.
- Fold in sifted flours and orange juice mix in 2 batches.
- Divide evenly on to muffin tray. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Cool on rack before frosting with cream cheese frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
250g cream cheese, softened
80g butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
- Beat cream cheese and butter until softened.
- Add icing sugar and beat until well combined.
And well, being the glutton that I am, I couldn’t resist taking a bite. I had to stop myself halfway to take a photo of the insides and well, here you go!
NOM!
I adjusted a few bits and pieces from the recipe because I wanted to make 16 muffins and the recipe on said it yields 8, but things still went well and they were just fabulous!
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