Orange Poppy-seed Muffins

Two and a half weeks of being at home and I still haven't found a job!  So for lack of anything better to do, I decided to occupy this windy Wednesday with a bit more baking.

My Mum has been requesting these muffins for a while.  They're nice and light; perfect for this time of year.

The worst part of this recipe is grating the orange zest.  Thankfully Mum's got a special zest grater she let me use (shown above).  Would have taken twice as long without it!!

Recipe:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup coarsely grated orange rind

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup orange juice

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3 tbsp poppy seeds

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Oven at 375˚F.  Cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Stir in orange rind.

Combine buttermilk and orange juice; set aside.

In separate bowl, stir together flour, poppy seeds, baking soda and salt.

Gradually add dry ingredients to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk mixture.  (Make 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 additions of buttermilk mixture).

Spoon batter into greased muffin cups.

Bake in center of oven until golden brown, about 20 mins (I took them out after 15 mins and it was plenty).

Makes approx. 12 muffins.

I put half of the batter into smaller cups to make it stretch a bit further.  You can also freeze these for up to 2 weeks if you make too many!

Recipe adapted from Canadian Living: Meals in Minutes, 1999

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