When a recipe calls for wholefood it reminds me of my mum who went through a phase of being a bit of a wholefood nut. Wholesome, nourishing food that looks brown and had the texture of sawdust. Obviously things in food have come a long way over the years and this is a recipe for Date and Orange Muffins you can take whole food to a new level. Hold onto your apron because you are going to use a whole orange in this recipe. Actually, it’s two whole oranges.
This is my kind of cooking. A true gather, whizz and mix up recipe. The fact that you end up with a mountain of sweet and moist muffins is just a bonus.
Gathering all the ingredients together before you start cooking is a relatively new concept for me. I’m generally pacing back and forth across the kitchen which is exhausting and invariably ends up with me realising I don’t have the vital ingredient necessary. Also, ingredient cruising can be dangerous with two bassets to navigate around since they’d worked out that parking themselves flat out on the floor is the most effective way of catching the cooking debris as it falls to the floor.
Yes, cooking in our kitchen now requires you to master the quick step and perfect your assault course techniques. So to save energy and preserve my bassets I gather all my ingredients together before I start.
First whizz up two oranges in the food blitzer – yes, skin, seeds, the whole caboodle. Add the eggs and melted butter. Blitz for a few more seconds but don’t over do it. Then in a large bowl put the orange mixture with the dates. In a separate jug or bowl mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and sugar and then add to the dates and orange mix but don’t mix at this stage. Finally sift in the dry ingredients in small amounts and start to turn over the whole mixture together. It’s important not to beat or over mix – muffins like to be treated gently – blend all the dry ingredients together in small amounts until you’re left with a light batter.
Here’s the kicker. This recipe makes 24 muffins so make sure you’re hungry or have plenty of people around to share them with you. They do of course keep fresh in an airtight container for 2-3 days or better still freeze a few so that you can whip out a muffin to put in your lunch box and feel smug about having home baking in it. Bake the muffins for 15-20 minutes and cool in the muffin tray for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to cool.
Enjoy. These muffins are sweet but the orange gives a nice kick making them feel healthy to eat. This is where the whole orange is the perfect whole food to enjoy. We took a box with us when we went away to the beach and they were delicious with our morning tea watching the sun come up. I’m sure they’d have the same warm uplifting experience whether you’re at the beach or warming up in the snow!
Date and Orange Muffins
Adapted from Annabelle Wright from A Treasury of New Zealand Baking
2 whole oranges
2 large eggs
200g butter, melted & cooled a little
1 cup pitted dates
400g natural yoghurt
A squeeze of lemon juice
3/4 cup of sugar
3 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
- Pre-heat oven to 200°C. Grease two 12-hole muffin tins or line with muffin papers.
- Blend the whole oranges in a food processor. Add the eggs and melted butter and mix again. Don’t over mix. Put the mixture in a large bowl with the dates.
- Mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and sugar together in a bowl or jug and add to the date & oranges but don’t mix.
- Sift the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add them to the orange & date in small amounts blending all the ingredients until a light and fluffy batter is formed. Don’t beat or over mix.
- Spoon the mixture into your muffin trays. If you want some muffin bling, slice an orange thinly and cut a segment and pop this on the top before baking.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until when your test skewer comes out clean.
- Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes before completely cooling on a rack.
The muffins freeze well or keep in an airtight container for about 2-3 days.