“I want a pastry!” “I want a muffin!”
A monster has been created by spoiling her too much. The latest Strawberry Crossover may have been just a little too good and now the demands for fresh breakfast delights are increasing. Good thing muffins are quick and easy to make.
Not that I mind the demands. Nothing makes me happier than cooking or baking for the ones I love, especially when I am lucky enough to have someone as special as Diane who can cook like a badass too, so I know the favor will be returned. Even pre-cappuccino hour demands are looked upon with pleasure.
A muffin she wants, a muffin it is. Lately any muffin requests have been met by freshly baked lemon muffins, but it was time to mix it up a bit. Blood oranges are still filling our coffers, so with a little twist a blood orange muffin recipe was born.
Just as I’m about to spoon the batter into the muffin pan, the beautiful little monster declares, “I want chocolate!”
Well, that isn’t entirely true. She is beautiful, and she did want chocolate, but she isn’t really a monster. Yet. With a few chops of the knife I broke up a dark chocolate bar into chunks, gently mixed them into the batter and sent everything off to the oven for baking.
Soon the kitchen air was warm and sweet, I had my morning cappuccino, we shared the chocolate oozing muffins and everyone was happy. Not a bad way to start the morning.
-Todd
Chocolate and blood orange is a deadly combination!
Print This Recipe
Blood Orange Chocolate Chunk Muffin Recipe
Adapted from Beth Hensperger’s Bread “Fresh Lemon Muffins” recipe. If you want to highlight the blood oranges more, omit the chocolate chunks. You’ll need about 4 blood oranges to make this recipe. Regular oranges or lemons make good substitutes. Makes about 9 regular sized (2 1/4″ diam.) muffins.
1 3/4 c (275g) unbleached, all-purpose Flour
1/2 c (100g) Sugar
1 1/2 t (6g) Baking Powder
1/2 t (2g) Baking Soda
1/4 t (1g) Sea Salt
grated Zest of 3 Blood Oranges
approx. 6 oz (170g) Dark Chocolate Chunks or Chips
1/2 c (115g) unsalted Butter, melted
2/3 c (155ml) fresh Blood Orange Juice
1 t (5ml)Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
Blood Orange Glaze
1/4 c (50g) Sugar
1/4 c (60ml) fresh Blood Orange Juice
pre-heat oven to 400°F
Grease & flour muffin pan
1. In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, and zest until well mixed. Mix in chocolate chunks.
2. Combine melted butter, blood orange juice, vanilla extract and eggs. Mix until well combined. Fold into dry mixture until just combined (important- do not overmix). Spoon into muffin pan cups, mounding full.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly brown. Test with a tooth pick to double check center doneness (should come out clean unless it hits chocolate.) While muffins bake, make blood orange glaze: combine sugar and blood orange juice in a small saucepan and heat to dissolve sugar. Set aside.
4. Poke muffins in a few places with a toothpick and pour over warm glaze. Allow to cool.
Other Blood Orange Ideas:
- Blood Orange Margarita – You must try this!
- Substitute blood orange for the Meyer Lemon in our Meyer Lemon Scones
- Smitten Kitchen’s Blood Orange Tart
- Matt Bites’ Blood Orange Caramels – ok it’s not a pastry but it is delicious!
There were tons of additional blood orange recipe ideas in the comments of our latest Blood Orange Giveaway (deadline has passed)
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{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
One question: how do you do this thing called “keeping chocolate in the house for such occasions”? Because whenever I try that it always seems to have disappeared by the time I need it for something.
Sasa- Lol! We always have secret stashes of chocolate hidden through out the house
Oh yum. These look and sound absolutely fabulous.
Oh this is so the wrong post to read as you wake up… It’ll make me dream of chocolate and blood oranges for the rest of the day – and happily deadly it is! Thank you for the beautiful photos, recipe and post. You two are truly an inspiration.
Not at all a bad way to start a day! I’d love to see how the rest of the day went! yum!
Now this looks yummy… I like the blood orange glaze idea. Is it tangy enough without the zest? I can’t imagine it would be… not with the blood oranges I have sampled… but then, you grow your own, right? So, maybe.
The blood orange flavor is subtle even with the zest. I think we put so much chocolate in ours that it dominated the flavors. The glaze is where most of the blood orange flavor comes from.
Absolutely beautiful and what a great combination. I’ve never had blood orange and chocolates together. And they’re just very inviting.
Wow, now that is my kind of muffin! Simply gorgeous!
Although I’m not blessed with access to such a lovely bounty, I’m pleased you are since your inspiration leads to recipes like this darlin’. Delightful!
Oh, these pictures send me into the bloody orange muffin craving like no other. Beautiful and scrumptious.
What a nice flavor combination Blood Oranges and Chocolate. I like the way the light reflects off of the orange, very nice.
“not a bad way?” How about “totally awesome”?
Granted, I still need to taste my first blood orange on my next trip to the states…
Citrus and dark chocolate…that is my hubby’s favorite combination! If I can still find the blood oranges here, I will definitely make these. The pictures are stunning.
And I thought those blood orange margaritas look good! I can’t wait to try these!
Wow, these muffins look delicious!
I need to find someone to make me breakfast. Or to do the dishes after I make breakfast. Preferably both.
They look fantastic – chocolate and orange is my favorite. How do you get the tops so nicely rounded? Mine always come out flat!
i once had a chocolate-orange truffle from a box of chocolates and it was vile. that said, i’m willing to try the combination again simply because of this post. your pictures are phenomenal and your recipe looks terrific!
oh yummy.
)
We could really enjoy these at our Chocolate Breakfast Club gathering!
Hey guys,
Nominated you in the best blog about growing food for a mouse and trowel award. Everybody click http://mouseandtrowel.org/2010-nominations/ to vote for our favorite foodies!
oxoxoxo
Cindy
If I could ask for such things, I would. Hans toasts bread for me. But he does make a mean cup of coffee. Todd, you mind teaching my man your skillz in the kitchen?
what an awesome way to start the morning!
Yes you are correct, blood oranges and muffin are great combination. Oh I thought that the blood oranges are in the mixture of the flour muffin. I love that it was glazed. Dark chocolate would be the delight on the tongue when you eat the muffins and the blood orange glaze would make you truly happy. This is one hell bloody muffin. Thank you very much for sharing your recipe.
Hi Kathy. Actually the blood orange is in both. There is juice and zest in the muffin, but the really kicker comes from the glaze.
How did I not find your blog until now? Your images are stunning and I’m running across the street to buy blood oranges right this minute.
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I NEVER bake but this looks too good to pass up.
Great way to start the day. The muffins look marvelous.
So pretty!
Oh my goodness, these look beautiful and I bet they taste even better.
I just wish I could get more consistent access to blood oranges. I love them so.
I love blood oranges, but have never thought about pairing them with chocolate. What a totally great idea. Fantastic looking muffins Todd!
Hello,
My name is Haley Destafino, I am the Associate Publisher of The Mountain Times, a weekly newspaper in Killington, Vermont. Every year we publish a summer and winter menu book which is a collection of the local restaurants menus. We look for colorful and seasonal photos for our covers and the photos you have are very appealing. I write to you in hopes of getting your permission to use one of them for this winter’s menu book cover. We would gladly give you the photo credit and copies after it is published. You can see this summers cover on our website, http://www.mountaintimes.info. I look forward to hearing from you. [email protected]. Thanks for your time.
wow, those are some very big chunks of chocolate in those muffins! totally yummy!
I love the extra edge of blood oranges and of course their intense color. Diane’s a lucky woman 8).
Made these today using Navel oranges (cause that’s what I had around) and they turned out wonderful!! Thanks for the great recipe.
something tells me omitting the chocolate chunks would be a bad idea — i love that combination, and now i’m really curious to try it with blood orange. great photos, of course.
Mmm, I really love the combination of chocolate and oranges. I’m thinking I might try this with regular oranges first and go from there. Thanks for sharing!
blood orange in a chocolate muffin these look great :O)
I read about you guys in the Sunset magazine and I love this blog! The pictures are fantastic and I marked several recipes. I made these muffins today and they were delicious…but my batter was blue and the muffins are blue inside too. Do you have any idea how that happened and your muffins are just white?
Hi Carrie,
Welcome. Thank you so much for the sweet compliments.
Blue? We’ve never had that happen. It always gets a tinge pinkish from our blood oranges and I can’t think of anything which would cause that. Sorry we can’t be of more help. Maybe another reader will have some experience in regards to this. At least they were tasty!
T & D
Yes, they are delicious! Thanks for the idea!
I just love your blog! and your images STUNNING! I’m planning to make this recipe but since I like moist soft muffins I was wondering if the liquid ingredients are enough to make them fluffy or do I need to add more oj/eggs or maybe buttermilk. Thanks for the advice!
Thanks for the sweet compliments!
The ratio for these muffins creates the perfect texture for us so we haven’t deviated from it. A key to fluffiness is when adding the liquid ingredients to the sifted dry ingredients, is to barely mix until combined. The less you can mix the better. We always mix at this point by hand, so we have better control and precision.
If you play with the recipe, we’d love to hear how the changes come out!
Todd
Thank you for the fast response! I will definitely tell u guys how the muffins come out, thanks again
The recipe is GREAT, did’nt need to alter it. Muffins came out moist and tender. Thanks a lot!
These are DELICIOUS!!!!