Orange Marmalade Poppy Seeds Muffins

This is one of my favourite muffins but somehow I have never gotten to bake this until now. I googled "orange poppy seeds muffin" and a recipe from taste.com.au came on top. It has pretty good reviews so I decided to use it with some modifications. Most of the comments left were they could use more orange juice and rind hence I added more of those and I tried adding marmalade to give it more orange taste. I think it worked rather well. When I bake this again, I might add another teaspoon of orange rind just to see if it make it better  but I am quite happy with how it turned out.

Orange Marmalade Poppy Seeds Muffins 
Adapted from taste.com.au

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

dry
2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cups castor sugar
2 tbsp poppy seeds

wet
2 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice (from 1 medium orange)
3/4 cup milk
125 gr butter, melted
3 tsp finely grated orange rind (from 2 medium orange)
2 tbsp marmalade

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) and place muffin papers in muffin tins or grease muffin tins well with butter.
• Mix the dry ingredients.
• Combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk lightly.
• Pour into flour mixture and stir with a fork until just combined. Do not overmix.
• Spoon batter into muffin tins equally (about 2 1/2 tbsp each).
• Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until slightly browned on top.
• Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out.
• Enjoy.

Lime Curd Muffins

A friend of ours called one morning asking if I wanted to make tart. Apparently, he had lots of limess from his tree. Who would say no to that? He came with a bag of lovely limes so I decided to make mini lime meringue tarts. They are divine and finished within hours but I was left with some lime curd. I made the lime curd muffins the next day. It was another hit! The muffins were delicious and moist with a tangy bite. I didn't think the kids would like them because of the tartness but they couldn't stop eating them. So go ahead and make this especially if you have some lemon curd sitting in the fridge.

lime curd muffin - no toppings

For the lime curd, I used Gary Mehigan's recipe from Masterchef Australia. It is a really easy recipe as you just need to microwave it and the curd is beautifull and really tangy!

Lime Curd Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (220 gr) self raising flour
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cups castor sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
juice of 2 limes
rind of 2 limes, finally grated
1 tsp vanilla essence
lime curds (see below)

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) and place muffin papers in muffin tins or grease muffin tins well with butter.
• Mix flour and caster sugar.
• Combine milk, juice, oil, egg and lime rind in a separate bowl and whisk lightly.
• Pour into flour mixture and stir with a fork until just combined. Do not overmix.
• Spoon batter into muffin tins about 1/3 full, spoon a tablespoon of curd then spoon the muffin butter on top of the curd until about 2/3 full.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned on top.
• Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out.
• Once cool, spoon a tablespoon of curd on top of the muffin.
• Enjoy.

lime curd muffin

Lime Curds
Gary Mehigan - Masterchef Australia

Makes approx. 2 cups 

Ingredients
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
170g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, cubed
finely grated rind of 2 lime
200ml lemon juice, from about 3 big limes
http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/

Method

• Beat whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar in in a microwave-safe bowl until incorporated. Add butter to the egg mixture.
• Add grated lime rind and lime juice,stir and place into microwave.
• Microwave, uncovered, on medium for 1 minute then stir. Repeat 8 times or until the mixture thickens. 
• Store in sterilized jar in the refrigerator.

Mandarin Almond Muffins

I love muffins. They not only taste great but are probably one of the easiest things to bake. You just need to mix the wet and dry ingredients. No electric mixer needed. I enjoy trying out new recipes with whatever is in season, what I have in the pantry or in the fridge. I tend to forget what I made before though so hopefully this blog will help me to jot down all the recipes.

Mandarin Almond Muffins

I'll start with mandarins as they are in season now and I can't stop eating them. These muffins are light and the almond flakes give them a lovely texture.

Mandarin Almond Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

1 ½ cups self-raising flour

½ cup castor sugar

½ cup milk

½ cup mandarin juice

½ cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 tbsp finely grated mandarin rind

Almond flakes

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) and place muffin papers in muffin tins or grease muffin tins well with butter.
• Mix flour and caster sugar.
• Combine milk, juice, oil, egg and mandarin rind in a separate bowl and whisk lightly.
• Pour into flour mixture and stir with a fork until just combined. Do not overmix.
• Spoon batter into muffin tins about 2/3 full, then sprinkle with almond flakes.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned on top.
• Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out.
• Enjoy.

Note

• I wanted big muffins today so I spoon the batter into the tin almost full (made 8 muffins) and baked them for about 30 minutes.
• I used 5 mandarins to get 1 tbsp of rind.