Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.
Dolly Parton
So I started off the year with the best intentions and the very ambitious resolution of posting one recipe a week. Like all my resolutions, this one too died a premature death before long, and now it’s been a couple of months since I have even been here. What can I say. Life has been… Well, it has been life!
What’s relevant is that I am back and here s hoping I will be back often and enough!
The problem with taking a big break from baking (seriously, I had separation anxiety issues with my Morphy
And nothing says comforting like a warm muffin on a cold morning! And these eggless orange poppyseed muffins are everything muffins should be. Light and fluffy, good and wholesome flavour, a refreshing jolt of citrus and some crunch to get your teeth into.
The orange is there, courtesy both orange zest and orange juice. You can skip the zest if you wish, but I do recommend it for more oranginess. Infact, if like me, you like limes and lemons and all things citrus in your dessert, a Zester 
I stayed away from poppy seed bakes for so long because we don’t get the black ones in India, then someone told me the regular ones work as well. You can toast them, they add a good crunch. You can skip them if you would rather do that. Using the brown poppyseeds compensates well enough flavour and texture wise. I did miss the pretty black speckling of the muffin though!
Eggless orange poppyseed muffins
Ingredients
- 125 grams or 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 70 grams or 1/3 cup granulated or castor sugar
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon orange zest from one orange
- 56 grams or 1/4 cup butter melted and cooled
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup milk at room temperature
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup yoghurt at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons orange juice fresh or reduced from 1/4 cup
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 C or 350 F. Grease a 6 cavity muffin tray or use muffin liners.
- Optional steps : 1. In a pan over medium heat , roast the poppy seeds for few minutes. Cool and keep aside. 2. In a saucepan , bring 1/4 cup fresh orange juice to a boil. Simmer for a few minutes until reduced to half or 2 tablespoons.
- In a large bowl, rub the zest into the sugar for a couple of minutes.
- Add the flour , baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds. Whisk until combined.
- In another bowl , stir together the butter, milk, yoghurt and orange juice.
- Whisk the wet ingredient mixture into the dry ingredient mixture ONLY until combined.
- Using an Ice cream scoop or spoon, divide the batter into the prepared pan/ liners.
- Sprinkle about 1/2 tablespoon sugar on top of each muffin.
- Bake at 180 C for 24- 26 minutes until top is golden brown, a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Enjoy warm or cooled!
Notes
The recipe can be doubled.
Reduced (concentrated ) orange juice and zest give a better flavour. You can skip both steps if needed.
I used regular indian poppy seeds (khus khus). You can leave them out for plain orange muffins.
My measuring cup is 240 ml
As it stands, these muffins taste a lot better than they look (I wish I could blame lack of time here, its just my dismal photography skills). And they do taste good! Try them and see for yourself!
Thanks Sam and Neha for keeping on my back about returning to baking /blogging.. And thanks Nirmala for the flavour pairing suggestion!
And if you are a fan of oranges , you may like one of these!
Orange and cranberry butter cake
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