Whole Wheat Orange Muffins with Zesty Glaze

Pretty enough for a brunch. Healthy enough for a January breakfast. Amen and amen. Of course we don't do brunch around here unless breakfast is running so late that it sort of turns into, um, brunch (does it count as brunch if people are sitting naked except for diapers/underwear around the table or is that against the strict standards of brunching etiquette?). 

A few notes on this recipe:

-It calls for corn syrup. I went with that, but I'm not sure why it's there and why it can't just be a couple tablespoons of white sugar. 

-I'm sure you could use fresh or frozen juice, but you're zesting the orange, so you might as well juice it too.

-When I made the zesty glaze, my original plan was to roll in onto a warm muffin and coat the muffin that way. That didn't work--the sugar and zest wouldn't adhere to the muffin or stay put on anything. I was going to just leave the muffins as they were (because they taste great plain as well), but after an hour or so, I noticed that the juices from the zest had sort of melted the sugar and now I had more of a glazy thing to work with. I stuck the tops of the muffins in and just enough sugary water/zest stuck to look pretty and give the muffins a nice orange-y kick. (This is how it looked after sitting:

-You could leave the zest off.

-You could increase the sugar in the zesty glaze (as it is it's for orange flavor and punch only; there's not a lot of extra sweetness added)

-You could frost or glaze the muffins (for extra sweetness) and then add the zest to the top of that for prettiness. I'd recommend a cream cheese frosting, but use what you will. 

Whole Wheat Orange Muffins with Zesty Glaze

adapted from tasty kitchen

Makes 9-10

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10-15 minutes

Cost: $.75 (That's about $.07/muffin; take that coffee shops)

milk: .05, oil: .03, egg: .10, 1 large orange: .25, whole wheat flour: .20, sugars: .12)

1/3 C milk

3 Tbsp canola oil

1 egg

2 Tbsp corn syrup

1/3 C orange juice (1 large orange)

1 pinch grated orange zest

1 C whole wheat pastry flour (I used white whole wheat)

1/3 C brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

For the zesty glaze:

1-2 Tbsp orange zest

2 Tbsp sugar

To prepare muffins:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk milk, oil, egg, corn syrup, orange juice, and pinch of zest.

Mix in flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt until batter just combined. 

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean or with some moist crumbs. 

To add glaze:

(You'll want to start this before you do the muffins so it can sit long enough to have the sugars melt.)

Combine zest and sugar. It will be granular at first (and smell awesome). Let it just sit there until the sugars have sort of melted and you have some watery stuff in the bowl. Then it's ready. Dip tops of muffins into this. 

Serve warm or cool. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

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