Orange Date Muffins (with choco chips)

I went on a road-trip with some ladies from church, and Linda had made these as a snack to share. I kept going back and sneaking an extra one, and then another, and then one more. These are so so so delicious and one of my favourite muffins of all times. In my opinion, orange and chocolate are one of the best combinations, but if you want to keep these as a breakfast muffin, you can omit the chocolate...but I would never do such a thing.

POST EDIT: I just found out that this recipe comes from a popular recipe book from the 80s called "Muffin Mania." I just acquired a copy, and I am SO excited to try new muffins recipes. I think I love muffins.









INGREDIENTS:__________________________________________________________________
Printable version
Makes 12 large muffins or 24 mini muffins plus 4 large

• 1 whole orange
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup dates (about 10-12), pitted
• 1/2 cup margarine or butter
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• A couple handfuls of chocolate chips (mini's if you're making mini muffins, optional)

DIRECTIONS:____________________________________________________________________

1. Spray/line muffin pan. Preheat oven at 375 degrees,
2. Leave the skin on the orange and cut it into pieces to remove the seeds. Drop the pieces into a blender with the orange juice and blend until the peel is finely chopped. Add the egg, dates, and margarine. Pulse the blender to mix and chop the dates, and blend until it's all incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, stir the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the chocolate chips.
4. Create a funnel in the middle of the dry ingredients, and poor in the thick orange mixture and stir only until just moistened. No not over mix!!
5. Add spoonfuls into the muffin pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12 large muffins (or you can do 12 smaller sized muffins and a few extra mini loaves).

POST EDIT: Make mini muffins and add mini chocolate chips (so cute). It makes 24 mini's plus 4 large muffins. Bake at 375 for 13-15 minutes (the mini muffins).

Bon Appétit!

Cathy