Blender Date-and-Orange Muffins

Here’s another weekend morning treat! The texture and flavor of these muffins is nothing short of outstanding.

Blender Date-and-Orange Muffins:

1 large whole orange, including skin and pith

½-c. orange juice

1 large egg

½ c. butter or margarine 

½ c. pitted dates (see Note)

1-½ c. white flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

¾ c. sugar

¾ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 400 deg. F. Wipe orange skin with a clean, dry cloth. Cut orange into eighths, removing seeds. Blenderize very thoroughly with orange juice, egg, and butter or margarine. Drop in dates, a few at a time, continuing to blend until coarsely chopped. In a separate bowl, add flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt, combining thoroughly. 

Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in blenderized ingredients, stirring just until moistened (Over-mixing will toughen muffins). Bake 15-20 min. in ungreased paper liners in muffin cups. Yields 1 dozen standard-sized muffins.

Note: Dates are the perfect complement for orange, but I didn’t have any. Instead, I added dried blueberries as I poured the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Stirring in fresh blueberries would have turned these muffins an unattractive purple. Whenever you add fresh berries to muffins, drop (rather than stir) them in.

Buzz moist ingredients

Spoon into greased muffin papers

Serve fresh from the oven