Cranberry Orange Rice Muffins

In the past few months that I have been blogging, I have sent entries to a few events. Some people leave a comment on your blog thanking for the entry. Some people send an email. All of them send an email when roundup is published. But, I have not seen anyone giving a gift if you win (whatever the criteria for winning is) except Madhuram. When I won the Whole Grain Event - Corn, I felt kind of silly since it is just by probability that I won (It is picked randomly). Nevertheless, I was happy and had no words when she told me what the gift was. Yes, she sent me 'Whole Grain Baking' by King Arthur Flour and it was the same book I had been eying in the store for some time now. What better way to thank her for the beautiful gift than make something from that book and send it as an entry for her ongoing event - 'Whole Grain Baking - Rice' event.

There is a recipe called 'Cranberry - Orange Spelt Muffins' in that book. I took that recipe, made some changes and made these muffins. This is quite time consuming but well worth it. Here is my version with rice flour..

Ingredients:
Muffin Batter:

• 1 cup coarsely chopped dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup of orange juice (I used freshly squeezed)
• 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 TBSP baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cups milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 TBSP corn starch (Original recipe had 2 eggs)
• 4 TBSP water
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 TBSP orange zest
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Streusel:

• 3 TBSP unsalted butter (I used I can't believe it's not butter)
• 1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar (I used light)
• 1/4 cup oat flour 
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (I omitted it since my kids sometimes get picky about nuts)

Method:
Original recipe said to microwave the orange juice and cranberries and let them rest overnight. I had no patience or time for that. I microwaved orange juice and cranberries and let them rest till I gathered the rest of the ingredients. Cranberries had already plumped up and I just continued with the recipe.


This is exactly as in the book except for my substitutions.
Whisk together the flours, corn starch, baking powder, salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, honey, water, and oil. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until you see no more dry clumps of flour. The batter will look a bit soupy; that's okay. Stir in th eorange zest, pecans, cranberries and juice. Cover the batter and refrigerate for an overnight rest. If you can't wait for an overnight rest, let the batter sit for at least 2 hours before baking. (That's exactly what I did)

Make the streusel while the batter is resting. Combine the butter (in my case I can't believe its not butter) and sugar until well mixed; work in the flours until you have a crumbly mixture. Stir in pecans. (I omitted this)

When you are ready to bake the muffins, remove the batter from the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Lightly grease a muffin tin or line with papers and coat the papers with nonstick spray.

Scoop the batter by 1/3 cupfuls into the prepared pan; the muffin cups will be almost full. Sprinkle the streusel over the batter. Bake the muffins until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 24 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a rack to finish cooling.

My Tips:

The above recipe yielded 14 regular size muffins even though the recipe said the yield to be 12 muffins. Streusel was excess. I did use one tablespoon of streusel for each muffin, even then only half the quantity was used. There was no place in the muffin cup for me to use more. It is better to halve the streusel topping. I baked the muffins at 375 F since I was using dark colored pan. Even then the muffins were done at in 24 minutes. These are a little denser muffins, but taste pretty good.

Yes, you guessed it right. I am sending these to Madhuram's Whole Grain Baking - Rice event. Thanks Madhuram for a wonderful book and the additional gift too.


Happy Baking!! Pin It