Strawberry Orange Muffins

Featured Food Storage: homemade buttermilk, strawberry freezer jam, dehydrated orange zest, almonds.

I love strawberries, I love muffins and I am on a big orange flavored kick because I am experimenting with my bulk orange zest I got from SF herb company. See previous post. I also cooked up some orange scones this week from Scrappin Mom's blog. Oh, I love scones. I could have tea time every day if I knew I was going to get scones.

Well I had a pantry, fridge and freezer full of goodies just waiting to go into these moist muffins, recipe found in Eating Well magazine. I changed a few things like using dehydrated orange zest and homemade strawberry freezer jam instead of strawberries, which would have been delicious also. But this recipe really got my attention because it is low on sugar and relatively healthy, especially since it is packed with vitamin C.

Strawberry Orange Muffins

3 Tb almonds

2 Tb, plus 3/4 cup all purpose flour, divided

2 Tb plus 1/2 Cup brown sugar, divided

3 tsp grated orange zest, divided

1/2 tsp salt divided

2 Tb plus 1/4 cup canola oil, divided

1 Cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 Cup buttermilk ( I used homemade) the original recipe called for lowfat.

1/4 Cup orange juice

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 Cups strawberry jam (I used freezer jam slightly thawed) You can also use fresh chopped strawberries.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat or line a 12 cup muffin tin. Process almonds, 2 Tb of all purpose flour, 2 Tb brown sugar, 1 tsp, orange zest and 1/4 tp salt in a food processor until finely ground. Drizzle with 2 Tb oil and stir to combine. Set aside.

Whisk remaining all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda and remaining salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl whisk ingredients, except for strawberries, until well combined. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. Add strawberry jam or strawberries and stir until just combined. Pour into muffin cups and top with streusel topping. Lightly press topping into each muffin. Bake until golden brown for 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan. If you remove too soon your muffins will fall apart. Continue cooling on a wire rack.

TIP: I like to make reduced sugar jams and I make my strawberry jam with reduced or no sugar needed pectin. I decided to use up some older freezer jam for this recipe since I just made up a fresh batch this past week.