Having a snowday today?  Lucky east coasters….in Boise we woke up to 12 degrees and NOT snowing.  Snow days are perfect for baking, so treat yourself to these muffins!

Chocolate Orange Muffins

• 4-5 oranges or tangerines
• 2 c flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 oz chocolate chips (1/2 bag of Ghiardelli’s 60% cocoa)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup oil (or applesauce if you’re being healthy)

Peel citrus and split into segments.  Keep 12 segments to put on top of the muffins, and chop the rest into pieces.  Chop chocolate chips into smaller slivers.  (I wanted an elegant sprinkling of chocolate slivers, not big blobs of melted chocolate, in these muffins.)  Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Add oranges and chips.  In mixer bowl, beat eggs, sugar, milk, and oil until smooth.  Add the dry ingredients slowly and mix on low speed just until combined.  Not overmixing is key with muffins.  Spoon into muffin tins and top each one with one of the remaining orange segments.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, until browned and springy to the touch.

Recipe is adapted from my “Cookies!”  cookbook, which does not appear to have an author but was published by Zak books in 2008.

We made these to try out our new stoneware muffin pan which we bought at Standard Restaurant Supply on Fairview. I baked half the muffins in the stoneware one and half in my old metal one, and didn’t see much of a difference except that the muffins were harder to remove from the stoneware.  Probably needs to be seasoned a bit.

The muffins were delicious and different from anything I’ve tried.  Orange and chocolate are a great combination!

–Katie