These aromatic Orange and Blueberry Spelt Muffins are fluffy soft and super delicious!
Coronacation has certainly brought out the inner chef in all of us and there's never been a better time to experiment with new dishes and flavours and during my baking experiment of late I was delighted to create these moist and fruity Orange & Blueberry Spelt Muffins were a major hit and hungry requests for another batch already made! I mean just look at those amazing natural colours!
My food philosophy is simple - it should taste amazing AND support a healthy balanced lifestyle. It's great to see that people today are realising that what we eat makes a difference to both our physical and mental wellbeing. That is why I am particularly delighted with these muffins which are filled with the numerous health benefits of fresh fruits, nourishing coconut oil which is full of healthy MCT's, spelt flour - a nutritious and tummy friendly ancient grain and almond milk making this a dairy-free recipe and quite the powerhouse of nutrients! I've also kept the sugar low but just enough to enhance fruitiness of these amazing muffins that would be perfect as a breakfast treat, lunchbox snack, a snack when you want a treat without the guilt!
As I am typing this up I have come to realise that I think I have something of an orange obsession in my baking. If you do to, then you are going to want to try these out as well - Orange & Macadamia Biscotti, Jaffa Crackle Cookies and freshly baked Blueberry & Orange Hot Cross Buns (And now I am seriously hungry!)
MY PRO TIPS
Never over mix your muffin batter or the result will be hard, dense muffins. Once you can see the wet and dry ingredients are incorporated stop mixing
Substitute choc-chips, nuts or perhaps even frozen raspberries for the blueberries if you wish to experiment!
Add 2 teaspoons poppy seeds for another dimension of flavor
Coating the blueberries with the flour helps suspend the fruit, stopping it from sinking to the bottom of the batter
Do not overfill your muffin pans - just over 3/4 is fine (I used small paper cups for my recipe as pictured)
You will need a food processor or similar to liquify your whole orange for this recipe
Warm muffins with butter taste amazing!
YOU WILL NEED
1 whole orange (including the skin)
2/3 cup fresh orange juice (roughly 2.5-3 oranges or equivalent fresh juice)
1 large egg (I used 1 x 700g/25ounces egg for this recipe you could also use 2 small eggs)
1/3 cup coconut oil (it should be liquid - melt first if you need to but should not be hot when adding to batter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/3 cup almond milk (you could use coconut, oat, regular milk)
2 cups spelt flour (you can also use regular plain/all-purpose flour/maida if you wish to
3/4 cup caster/granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup frozen blueberries + 1 tablespoon spelt flour
METHOD
Preheat your oven to 190C/375F and place 13 small muffin/cupcake pans onto a tray and set aside.
Cut the whole orange (with the skin) into 8 pieces, removing any seeds and cut each slice into half again so you have small chunks that can easily be broken down in your food processor.
Place the cut orange along with the orange juice into a food processor and blitz until the orange is broken up into very small pieces (you do not want big bits of rind so keep blitzing until really small).
Add the coconut oil, egg, vanilla and coconut extract and blitz again until well combined.
Add the almond milk and give it one more good mix.
In a large bowl add your dry ingredients - the spelt flour, caster sugar, baking powder, bicarb of soda and using a whisk, mix the ingredients to combine well.
Add the orange juice mixture to the dry ingredients and use your whisk or a spatula to gently incorporate the ingredients until just combined.
In a small bowl add the blueberries and flour and toss well, ensuring the berries are lightly but evenly coated with the flour.
Take 3/4 of the blueberries and gently fold into the muffin batter.
Evenly distribute the muffin batter between the pans and then distribute the remaining blueberries evenly into each of the cases.
Bake for 20 minutes or until a rich golden brown colour on the top. Can be served immediately
MAKES 13 SMALL MUFFINS
Tried this recipe? Tag @eatinstylebyferitta or #eatinstylebyferitta so I can see your creations and show you some love ♥