Orange and Cardamom Muffins ~ delicately fragrant muffins flavored with bright orange zest and warm, spicy cardamom, this easy muffin recipe is unique and delicious!
For a quick, easy, comforting breakfast, nothing beats my homemade orange and cardamom muffin recipe!
Is anybody making muffins anymore? It seems like they’ve totally gone out of fashion, right? But every time I make a batch I’m reminded of why I love them. These orange and cardamom muffins bake up so nice and tall, with a sugary crust on top, how could you resist? I don’t know why I thought of combining citrus with cardamom, I don’t think I’ve done it on the blog before, but boy, it’s so perfect. Neither taste is overpowering but they blend beautifully. The aroma is especially great when they’re just out of the oven, Definitely going to use this combo again!
You know I love my one bowl no-mixer recipes
They make baking from scratch so much more do-able. There’s less mess, and less lag time between the inspiration to bake and your first bite. Just grab your bowl and a whisk and you’re off to the races.
A plain muffin needs a little something something on the top, right?
I used my favorite Sparkling Sugarto add a little glitz and a sweet crunch. Less homey, more coffee shop. You could use regular sugar if that’s all you’ve got, but sparkling sugar has a bigger crystal and a great texture. I recommend picking some up from Amazon.
Muffins are nice to have around because they’re already pre-portioned and they keep well. Pop day old muffins in the micro for 20 seconds to revive that amazing aroma. They’re special enough for office potluck parties, especially in winter when a cozy muffin is everything.
One of the saving graces of deep winter is all the juicy citrus that comes into season.
It’s surprising how many different ways you can incorporate citrus into baking. In this recipe I use the juice and zest of the orange, but it’s the zest that really brings the orange flavor home. The outer orange colored part of the peel, or the zest, contains the flavor and aroma oils, which provide the true essence of the fruit flavor. The more you use, the more flavor payoff you’ll get.
How to zest an orange
The zest of citrus fruit is the very outer part of the peel…the part that is colored.
When you zest citrus fruit you are looking to remove just that outer colored part, with as little as possible of the white part underneath, which is bitter.
I highly recommend using a citrus zester, which is a tool specifically created to do the job.
Be sure to zest your fruit before cutting or juicing!
Zest your fruit as close to adding it to your recipe as possible, because the oils start to dissipate quickly.
Orange and Cardamom Muffins ~ delicately fragrant muffins flavored with bright orange zest and warm, spicy cardamom, this easy muffin recipe is unique and delicious!
Preheat oven to 350F and butter a muffin tin, or line with muffin tin liners.
Whisk together all the wet ingredients well.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, then add to the wet ingredients and fold everything together until there are no dry bits of flour left.
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins, and top with a sprinkling of the sparkling sugar.
Bake for 20-22 minutes until risen and starting to turn golden brown around the edges. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out without wet batter clinging to it.
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Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although The View from Great Island attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
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Chilling your muffin batter overnight in the fridge is the BEST thing you can do for amazing muffins. It makes them more moist, tender, and TALLER! It's very similar to chilling cookie dough, which if you know me you know I'm obsessed with chilling cookie dough.
You can top muffins with a dusting of cinnamon and sugar, a handful of chopped nuts or pumpkin seeds, or a daub of Nutella®* or frosting. But our favorite way to add a finishing touch to muffins is with a streusel topping.
Baking soda is most commonly used in cookie and muffin recipes. Baking powder, however, already contains an acid and a base and has a more neutral taste, which works great when baking cakes and bread.
When you overmix the batter, it crushes the air bubbles and ruins the fluffy texture. → Follow this tip: To ensure a batch of light, fluffy muffins, mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just barely combined, and no more dry flour is visible.
It is possible to replace oil with butter in a muffin recipe as generally most muffin recipes are quite forgiving and you may find that butter gives a better flavour.
If there isn't enough egg, your batter or dough may not be able to hold its structure or could end up overly dry or dense. On the other hand, if there is too much egg, your baked goods could lose their shape due to excess liquid, or have a rubbery (or even overly cakey) texture depending on the recipe.
The best bakery-style crumb muffins start with cake flour
Cake flour is more finely ground and has less protein, which leaves the muffins with a fine, light crumb and soft texture. Using cake flour is an easy way to avoid heavy, dense muffins even if you end up stirring just a bit too much.
The first, most hands-off way to make your muffins pop (literally) is to let the batter rest. Make the batter, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the batter rest at room temperature for about 1 hour. If you're short on time, just 30 minutes can make a difference.
Beating the eggs adds air to the egg whites and should lift the batter, though how much depends on what other ingredients are in your recipe. Heavier ingredients, such as oatmeal, will lessen the egg whites' leavening effect.
The baker had forgotten to add baking powder. Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda (sodium hydrogencarbonate) and a mild edible acid such as tartaric acid.
Give your muffin or pancake mix an extra kick by adding a teaspoon or two of your favorite powdered spice. Some of my go-to additions are cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, and allspice. But have some fun and figure out what works best with your mix.
Bake your muffins at 400°F for the first 5 minutes, then drop the temperature to the more standard 350°F for the remainder of the bake time. This method sparks the leavening agents (especially baking powder) in the batter to react quicker, creating that gorgeously risen top.
Leavening agents are used to help batters rise. We usually attribute this reaction to yeasts and baking soda, but egg whites are also perfect for this role.
For every teaspoon of baking powder in your recipe, add ¼ teaspoon of baking soda to the dry ingredients and ½ teaspoon of lemon juice to the wet ingredients. You don't need to reduce the wet ingredients for this method, as you are only adding a very small amount.
If the muffins are dry, it is possible that they were baked for slightly too long. The oven temperature is slightly higher that you would normally use for cakes, as this helps to give the muffins nicely domed tops, a good crust and a moist interior. This means that the baking time is only 15-20 minutes.
Recently I discovered that if I use sour cream in place of milk in a muffin recipe, I get a super moist, fluffy muffin! The switch is very easy. If a recipe calls for 3/4 cup of milk, I simply use 3/4 cup of sour cream instead. Occasionally, I need to add a bit more sour cream to moisten the muffin batter.
Use a steamer. Steaming is a great way to add moisture to past-their-prime muffins. And according to a TikTok user, you should also be steaming your muffins when you bake them since the hot air and steam allow more time for the centers to rise, resulting in tender and airy muffins.
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Introduction: My name is Maia Crooks Jr, I am a homely, joyous, shiny, successful, hilarious, thoughtful, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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