Fresh Orange Muffins

Jana here with a new muffin recipe!  My six year old son likes helping in the kitchen, and loves to suggest new recipe ideas. Recently, he asked me if I could make some orange muffins soon. I love to bake muffins, and had never tried any orange ones so I was up for the challenge!  I followed a recipe I found on www.food.com.  This website, along with www.allrecipes.com are great resources when you have an idea of something you want to bake, but want to read through ingredient lists and reviews. I loved that this recipe used fresh oranges, and the flavor is unbelievable!  The muffins are very moist, and the texture is awesome.  Another benefit is that the ingredient list is pretty short, so you can have these mixed up and ready to put in the oven in minutes!

Fresh Orange Muffins

2 medium sized oranges
1 large egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a 12 cup muffin tin by lightly greasing.

2. Squeeze the juice from one of the oranges until you have 1/2 cup. If you don't get quite this much from the orange, add water to make the total amount 1/2 cup.  (I did this, and the muffins were still so delicious!)

3. Cut the other orange into bite sized pieces (peel included, but make sure to remove any seeds!). Blend the orange pieces with the orange juice until pureed. (I used my immersion blender, and it worked very well)

4. Mix this puree with the egg and melted butter until well combined.

5. Add the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.

6. Use batter to fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!!