This week’s challenge was hosted by Chaya of My Sweet and Savory. Chaya chose Orange Blueberry Muffins with Pecan Crumble. Melissa’s book includes a basic sweet muffin recipe and several variations to that recipe – the orange blueberry muffins are just one of several variations.
Blueberry muffins are a classic and the addition of orange zest (which you rub into the flour mixture to release all the oils, something I have never heard of doing) really comes through. The pecan crumble was out of this world. I like a muffin with a topping! Of course, since I have nut haters in my family I only made 1/2 the muffins with the topping and those without it were still good.
This was a great recipe and I love the versatility. There is also a savory muffin recipe and several interesting pairings that go along with that in the book (like bosc pear and blue cheese – yum!). The muffins came together quickly – they could easily be made the morning of a brunch. My only complaint (and I generally have many…ask my family and friends!) is that I chose to make these muffins on the cloudiest/rainiest/darkest day we’ve had in a long time so my pictures are terrible! To get the recipe go to Chaya’s blog or buy the book! To see what the other fabulous SMS bakers did this week check out their sites. Thanks Chaya for giving me my go-to muffin recipe!
On a more personal note I wanted to say that my husband and I are looking to adopt. This is something we have given much thought and consideration and has been about 1 year in the planning/research stages. We are working with an agency here in Minneapolis and plan on utilizing their services to help get matched with a birthmother. As you can imagine there is a significant amount of wait time in doing that so we are going to do our own outreach as well. I started a website to help attract potential matches and will do some other outreach as well. I invite you to check out the website (there is also a link on my blogroll) and keep us in mind if you or someone you know is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. That’s probably all I’m going to say about that on here and keep this space as my own…
Thanks for reading!
10 comments
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May 9, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Cristine
Your muffins look great! I did half and half, too!
May 9, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Julie
Your muffins look wonderful. Love the muffin liners…so cute.
I am adopted! I always love to hear about people’s stories of adoption. I have a friend who adopted three children through Lutheran Social Services.
I will keep you in my thoughts.
May 9, 2010 at 6:32 pm
traceyc
Julie – thanks! We too are working with Lutheran Social Services.
May 9, 2010 at 6:22 pm
rebecca
I too have nuthaters- so I left them out of the topping and I’m so glad I did, as my daughter loved the crumble the best. I, however, missed the pecans…
Yours came out wonderfully!
May 9, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Tiffany
Your muffins look beautiful!!
Good luck with the adoption process. My sister placed a baby for adoption a couple years ago and I have several friends who have adopted! It is such a great answer for two difficult situation! Will definitely keep you in my thoughts!
May 9, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Tracey
Good luck with the adoption process – will keep my fingers crossed for you!
Your muffins (and the photos) look great to me! I was tempted to skip the pecan crumble since I was short on time and don’t really like pecans but I only made 3 muffins so going half and half wasn’t really an option.
May 10, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Nina
Looks great!
Good luck with the adoption process. I’ve only known a couple of people who have actually kept their babies after they got pregnant. Out of those, they have decided to keep their babies. One of them is married and the husband is working somewhat. The other is a single mom, and sometimes I wonder how she does it.
May 10, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Tessa
Best of luck with the adoption process!
I, too, sometimes leave the nuts out of crumbles as I am usually the no-nut culprit, but I really enjoyed them here. Your muffins look great!
May 11, 2010 at 11:46 am
Donna
Yum, I hope you keep on baking when I am there visiting you this summer.
May 11, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Mara
Good luck with the adopting!! And your muffins look great, I love the muffin papers you used!