orange muffins and other assorted breakfast recipes

heirloom oranges have been on sale at one of the local grocery stores, so when i bought more yesterday afternoon my mind turned to the delicious orange muffins a friend had made me this summer. i had been intrigued when sarah put the quartered orange pieces -- peel and all -- into her food processor. as we drove from colorado to oregon, i savored the leftovers that had been sent with me. the craving struck me hard this morning while sitting at jeremiah's strings class, so i shot sarah an email requesting the recipe. she replied quickly, and the muffins turned out so wonderfully that i thought i would share the recipe with all of you. if you know me at all, you know that i cannot leave a recipe the way i found it, so here is my version...reduced sugar and swapped out coconut oil for butter, since i nearly exclusively use coconut oil raw. after doubling the recipe, it looks like this:

orange muffins

4 oranges, peels on, quartered and then cut in half
2 eggs
1/2 C butter (one stick), melted

put oranges and eggs into food processor (or good blender) and let it work for 3-5 minutes. with food pro running, pour in the butter. in a mixing bowl, whisk together:

3 C whole wheat flour
2 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
1 t kosher salt

pour wet ingredients and 1/3 C agave syrup into dry ingredients. mix with spatula and spoon into muffin tins. bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes (mine took 17 minutes). let cool slightly before serving. makes 24 muffins.

EDIT 05.06.11:
the recipe originally called for two whole oranges and the juice of the other two. i am now using all four oranges in the food processor...no juicing, just quartering. I add 1 t vanilla and (if i don't care about the extra sugar) they are really, I mean REALLY good with 1 C of mini semisweet chocolate chips.


the day after my oven returned to the kitchen, i had an itch to bake something...hey! it had been since mid-december that anything had come from my oven! as i surveyed what i had on hand, banana cake was the answer. not my mom's and aunt's floury, fluffy banana cake, wonderfully light and sweet. it is absolutely amazing that my children will still eat mine after having multiple bakings of grandma's banana cake at christmas.  :)   mine has become gluten-free and low sugar...probably naughty words in iowa (just kidding, mom). i was going to post this recipe over a week ago, but from one wifi malfunction to another, have not gotten around to doing this until today. there is a low-flour version on my old xanga site: http://erinmeschke.xanga.com/tags/recipes/. that recipe was the step between my mom's cake and the one i currently make. you could make this cake for breakfast and feel absolutely no guilt for serving it. :)

gluten-free banana cake  (makes a 10x14 pan)

2 sticks butter
1/4 C - 1/2 C sugar

cream butter and sugar...3-5 minutes. you could probably use agave syrup, but you should probably soften the butter if you substitute. then add:

6 eggs
1 T vanilla
4 - 6 bananas
1/2 C plain yogurt

mix well. then add:

3 C oatbran
2 C quick oats
2 C whole oats
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t kosher salt

mix well. bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. you can sprinkle with powdered sugar when it's cooled, if you REALLY want to. :)

for this recipe, i use gallon ziplock bags to measure out all the dry ingredients (not sugar) for multiple batches. then when i'm ready to make the cake all i have to do is get the beginning of the recipe together and i can make it very quickly.


while i'm on the subject of breakfast, i may as well share one other recipe i created about two years ago...actually, the date on the paper says 04.26.08. it started out as a recipe on the back of a bob's red mill package, but morphed into this...

oat bran muffins

1 C whole wheat flour
1 C quick oats
1 C oat bran
1/2 C powdered milk
1/4 - 1/2 C brown sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon

whisk together dry ingredients. then add:

1 C applesauce
1/2 C milk
2 eggs
5 T butter, melted
1 t vanilla

mix, then stir in:

2 apples, diced

spoon into muffin pans. bake at 350 for 13-17 minutes.


our other breakfast favorites are over on xanga...
baked oatmeal: http://erinmeschke.xanga.com/690289558/improved-baked-oatmeal/
oatmeal pancakes: http://erinmeschke.xanga.com/694632158/oatmeal-pancakes/


breakfast really is the most important meal of the day...AND our favorite! here's to good mornings!