Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

I am in the middle of a beach trip with my girlfriends. It is glorious. We’re in this gorgeous house with a to-die-for kitchen… but when you’re vacationing you don’t really use a kitchen, right? Wrong. This house happens to have a lot of staples, and given what we brought with us, I searched the internet and found a recipe for which we only had to buy two spices. I feel extra impressive right now. *grin*

Clementine Spice Muffins (adapted from this recipe)

INGREDIENTS

Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

6-8 clementine oranges, peeled and separated into segments

Topping

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine all muffin ingredients except clementine segments. Once mixture is blended well, fold in clementines.

Spoon carefully into foil muffin liners or greased muffin tin. Fill each muffin liner about 3/4 full. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and set.

Remove from pan while still hot. To top, dip crown of each muffin in melted butter, then dip into cinnamon sugar mixture. Yields 13-16 muffins.

The original recipe called for canned mandarin oranges, and I think that recipe may result in muffins with a more uniform appearance. That said, these are delicious right out of the oven, and because the clementine segments hold together, each bite is a surprise of texture and flavor. If I make the recipe again, I’ll use more cinnamon and a tad more sugar, but as is it was declared an unqualified success.