Orange Sunrise Muffins

This morning it was my turn to bring a refreshment to the ladies' Bible study I am a part of. I thought about baking our family's favorite banana muffin recipe, but the hostess had baked banana bread two weeks ago, so I thought something a little different would be preferable. However, I love muffins and was excited to try out the new muffin tins I had purchased at the local supermarket! Orange muffins sounded like a winning idea, especially considering that we always have oranges on hand here at the house, so I went on the hunt for an orange muffin recipe on that trusty website, allrecipes.com.

As you can imagine, there were a multitude of recipe ideas listed. After reading ingredient lists and reviews, I settled on an old Mennonite recipe. It seemed to get the best reviews and it contained ingredients I could easily find here in Bolivia. Before making it for the ladies' Bible study, I whipped up a trial batch this past weekend for the children and tías here. The muffins were DELICIOUS and a big hit with all my eager taste-testers!

Since the recipe is so yummy and can be made quite healthfully, I thought it was worth sharing with you all!

Orange Sunrise Muffins

2 cups flour (I used white, but read a review saying wheat works too...looking forward to trying that!)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar (I used honey with great success)

2 tablespoons grated orange peel

2/3 cup orange juice

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs

Optional Topping (definitely delicious!):

1 tablespoon melted butter

1/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used white sugar since we don't have brown sugar here)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine wet ingredients and orange peel. Dump flour on top and add dry ingredients. Mix everything together thoroughly. Pour into greased muffin tins or baking cups. Blend together topping and sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

I actually baked the muffins and then added the topping. The first time it worked beautifully. This morning though, as the pictures show, I couldn't get it quite right and even after three attempts, it turned out lumpy. So I think next time, I'll do as the recipe says and put it on before baking. :)

Hope you all enjoy these as much as we did!