Strawberry Orange Muffins

My morning sickness has abated enough in the afternoons (thanks to Zofran) to allow me a little bit of cooking and baking. This is my favorite vegan muffin recipe and I decided I should finally post it up on my blog instead of hunting down the link every time I want to make them. I'm not the most organized with my recipes!

This recipe is originally from the vegancooking group on Livejournal.com. Making these always brings back warm memories because I found the recipe when I was in college and I'd often go over to my boyfriend's house (now husband) on Fridays and bake up a batch for Sabbath evening together. Sometimes we'd pack them along the next day and go hiking along the South Fork River outside of Walla Walla, WA.

For some reason I hadn't made muffins in a long time and this was Jael's first time to try them, but she loves them as much as we do. The orange zing with the strawberry on top is yummy!

Strawberry Orange Muffins
Dry ingredients:
3 c whole wheat flour
1 c unbleached white flour
1 c sugar (cane juice crystals)
1 T + 2 t aluminum free baking powder
1 t salt
Wet ingredients
1/2 c expeller pressed oil
1 1/2 c orange juice
1/2 vegan "milk" (soy, almond, coconut)
zest of one large orange
1 T vanilla

Mix dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients in a blender and blend briefly. Pour in with dry ingredients and mix briefly (over-stirring makes them tougher, less fluffy). Fill muffin tins 1/2 to 2/3 full and top with a fresh or frozen strawberry slice. Bake about 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until a knife comes out clean. On my oven, it's 17 minutes!


I've found that using water and frozen orange juice concentrate makes the wet ingredients cold and frothy, which helps make the muffins light and fluffy. Otherwise you could just add the wet ingredients directly without blending them, but I think this makes them a lot better!