Orange Almond Muffins

I should call these my procrastination muffins.  What do I do when I have a house full of drawers to clean out?  I bake. I know how to bake.  Cleaning and organizing, however, are not my strong suits. We have about 2 months before we move to California for the school year and we are renting our house for that time. Cleaning and organizing are going to be my MO...next month. Things will happen.  They will all come together.  

And so for now, I bake. I had a bowl of oranges that had to be used and two little mouths that love muffins for breakfast. It made perfect sense. My kids were very eager to help, which isn't always the case. They actually followed through until the very end and were so good at taking turns pouring and mixing. Their attention spans used to last through the first couple steps and then they were off playing with their toys. I used to pretty much get a -you're doing great mom.  Let me know when they are ready to eat. So this was a nice change.

These muffins have a slight nuttiness and a little texture from the almonds and oat flour, and a nice sweetness from the fresh oranges and honey. My kids were watching them bake while their bellies rumbled. There was no stopping them once the muffins were out of the oven. The comedian Jim Gaffigan does a hysterical bit on muffins and cake and how we call them muffins to make cake acceptable to eat for breakfast.   There is some truth to that but it works for me!

In my children's minds, the big difference is the lack of frosting.

Enjoy!

ORANGE ALMOND MUFFINS (Makes 16 large or 12 large and 12 tiny muffins)

Ingredients

• 2 Cups almond flour

• 1 Cup oat flour

• 2 farm eggs

• 2 TBSP Chia seeds

• 5 TBSP Fresh squeezed orange juice

• Zest of 2 oranges

• 1 TBSP Vanilla Extract

• 3/4 tsp Almond Extract (if you don't have this just leave it out or add a little more vanilla)

• 3/4 tsp Salt

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• 5 TBSP butter or coconut oil, melted

• 5 TBSP milk (I use almond or coconut)

• 1/2 Cup Honey

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Pour the oats into a Cuisinart and grind until it is a flour consistency. In a medium bowl, add flours, salt, baking soda.

3. In a large bowl add eggs and whisk.

4. Add chia seeds, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla extract, almond extract, melted butter, milk and honey. Whisk.

5. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix together. 

6. Either grease muffins pans or use muffin liners (I use silicon liners).

7. Fill about 3/4 full.

8. Bake small muffins for about 15 minutes and larger for 20-25 minutes.

9. They set up the longer they sit.  If you have little ones who just can't wait, they may be a little crumbly hot out of the oven.