Coconut-Orange Muffins

New years are often characterized by new beginnings, fresh starts, and leaving the heaviness of last year behind. Well these muffins are no different! The light texture and freshness of freshly grated oranges combined with the tropical taste of coconut will have you leaving the soggy, heavy winter behind and sprinting towards spring time.

I think Food Network did a fantastic job pairing muffin flavors with the season or holiday that surrounded the month it debuts in, but this one eludes me. The original recipe is Pomegranate-Orange Muffins, but I am personally not a fan of eating pomegranate seeds and I love shredded coconut so I made a last minute switch up, which in baking is totally acceptable. Either way neither recipe screams the month of January to me. I would think it would be a muffin speckled with edible glitter with a bold flavor combo that screams New Year! However, maybe they had the same idea that I had. Start off 2018 with a refreshing muffin and cleanse the palate after all the food consumed over the holidays.

Baking is a science, whereas with cooking you have a little more room for freedom, but too much of baking powder or accidently switching sugar with salt can be detrimental to your recipe. So when I made the decision to swap pomegranate seeds for unsweetened shredded coconut I hoped it wouldn’t be a death sentence to my muffins, after all this was the first recipe of the year!

It ended up being a fantastic swap! The unsweetened coconut paired so well with the fresh clementine’s that it made me wish spring was less than 4 months away. Also, now this is a baking preference, but I prefer to bake with unsweetened shredded coconut flakes compared to sweeten unless the recipe specifically calls for sweetened, but even then I am selective. Baked treats are usually pretty sweet to begin with and adding extra sweetened ingredients can overwhelm the baked treat, in my opinion. I am all about indulging my sweet tooth, but I don’t want to feel like I am eating a bar of sugar either. Again, personal preference!

Another change up moment I had with this recipe was that it tells you to put the ENTIRE clementine in the blender, yes, including the peel. I was like “what?!” I even debated back and forth with my fiancé if I should follow the recipe or if I should take the peel off. In the end I decided Food Network knew what they were doing and wouldn’t steer me wrong.

Both my ingredient switch up and going again my hesitation worked out perfectly! The muffins were a huge hit and tasted light, refreshing, and the perfect combo of citrusy to sweet.

Let’s get baking!

What You’ll Need:

•             3 cups all-purpose flour

•             1.5 cups granulated sugar

•             1.5 teaspoon baking soda

•             1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder*

•             .5 teaspoon salt

•             3 clementine’s

•             1 cup whole milk, at room temperature**

•             2 large eggs

•             1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut flakes

•             2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

•             .5 cup pomegranate seeds*

•             .5 cup confectioners’ sugar

*These ingredients are only needed if you make the original recipe of the Pomegranate-Orange Muffins; if not then omit these 2 ingredients. You use aluminum-free baking powder because regular aluminum baking powder can react with the pomegranates and turn your batter blue!

**I used unsweetened almond milk and they turned out fine!

Let’s Get Baking:

1.            Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center (See picture). *If making recipe with pomegranate seeds, add the aluminum baking powder.

2.            Wash 2 clementine’s and cut them into 8 pieces each (peel and all!) and transfer into a blender. Add the milk, blend until smooth. Add the 2 eggs and blend until combined. Pour the mixture from the blender into the well in the flour mixture. Add the butter, ¾ cup coconut flakes, and stir until just combined. The batter may be a little lumpy.

3.            Divide the batter among the muffin cups until they’re almost filled to the top. The original recipe says to fill the cups ¾ full, but I like a big muffin top on a muffin so I fill them all the way to the top! Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup shredded coconut evenly among the muffins. If using pomegranate seeds instead top the muffins evenly with the pomegranate seeds.

4.            Bake muffins until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Those last 5 minutes keep an eye on the muffins to make sure the muffin top edges don’t burn. Allow muffins to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

5.            Put the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and squeeze the juice from half a clementine into the bowl. Stir to make a thick glaze, adding juice from the other half of the clementine as needed. After the muffins have cooled all the way drizzle the glaze over the muffins and let set for 10 minutes. If you put the glaze while the muffins are still warm they will absorb the glaze or it will melt off, same if you make the glaze too runny the muffin will absorb it. Make it the thickness of the glaze you’d get to put on top of a toaster strudel from when you were a kid.

Enjoy for breakfast, with an afternoon cup of coffee or tea, with colleagues, family, or all to yourself!

                               

If you have any questions, please leave a comment! :) Happy Baking!