Orange Walnut Muffins

Oranges, not my favorite thing to eat, but one of my favorite smells and by far my favorite color!  I like orange IN things but to sit and eat an orange alone, nah, not my cuppa tea, to be honest.

My niece had stopped by a couple of months ago.  She always has ideas, suggestions and we like to talk food often.  She said she had seen these muffins on a website, maybe a camping website.  I thought they were such a cool idea.  I mean, using food for the delivery of food, is perfect.  Or is it actually using trash for the delivery of food?  Regardless of how you work it, I wanted to give it a try.   After much searching I found a few versions but, you know me, I made my own path with this one!

You will need to prepare your oranges.  Cut in half and I used a grapefruit spoon to clean them out.  KEEP the guts!  Do you ever call the inside of anything guts?  Innards?  Whatever you call them, keep them, including the juice, just put it all in a bowl.  I yielded the exact amount of juice I needed for this recipe from the 3 oranges.  Use your fingers and break up the orange sections, we will use those as well.  I wrote this for 6 muffins, but NEWS FLASH, it will make 3 regular muffins as well.  Unless you use HUGE oranges, which I thought I did.  Anyway clean those babies out and set them up into a muffin pan.  (zest your orange for the 1/2 tsp before you cut and clean them, it is easier)

Here is what you need for 6 muffins IN the orange:

3 oranges, cut in half and cleaned out
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp orange zest (optional)
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
orange sections you removed from the oranges

Preheat your oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together and mix until completely combined.  Divide into the 6 orange halves and 3 liners for the leftover batter.  Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

This is such a fun way to bake muffins!  I hope that you give them a try!!

Your "orange lovin" Chefwannabe

PS.  Make sure to eat these right away or the pith will bitter the muffins!!