When it comes to preschoolers-or come to think of it, people in general-it seems like you can never have enough muffins around. In our home, we make muffins weekly, using up leftovers and packing whole grains, seeds, and nuts into little packages that our children gobble down. Most of the time, if it’s in a muffin, even picky eaters will eat it. They’re fun to make with children, and even the smallest mini-chefs can help make them as long as you assemble and measure out all of the ingredients before they do their part of the cooking.
These special muffins, though, are pleasure muffins. The basic muffin is spiked with orange zest and juice and surrounds a dollop of luxurious cranberry-grape chutney. An added benefit? They will fill your home with an uplifting and essentially holiday scent: baked goods and orange.
The chutney recipe was inspired by an Everyday Food recipe from a few years back where you make cranberry sauce with a mixture of cranberries and red grapes. It is delicious on its own. I did, however, do a little dolling up by adding some spices and other good things and changing the amount of sugar/grapes just a tad. The chutney is a treat unto itself, and what you do not use for this recipe, you can serve alongside duck, chicken, or turkey or spread on tasty bread.
Peek-A-Boo Chutney Muffins
For the Chutney:
*3/4 c. water
*12 oz. cranberries
*4 c. seedless red grapes
*3/4 c. sugar
*1 star anise
*1 cinnamon stick
*2 one-inch long strips of orange zest
*1/2 t. salt
For the muffins:
*2 c. unbleached all purpose flour
*1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
*4 t. baking powder
*1 t. ground cinnamon
*1 t. salt
*1/2 c. sugar
*2 T. freshly squeezed orange juice
*zest from one medium orange
*1 c. milk, room temperature
*1 c. buttermilk or yogurt, room temperature
*4 eggs, room temperature
*8 T. (one stick) butter, melted
*2 t. vanilla
Assemble the chutney ingredients with your mini-chef, place them into a medium saucepan, and give them a good stir around. Then, Big Person will put that saucepan on the stove over a medium flame and bring the chutney to a boil. Turn the heat down and, stirring occasionally, simmer the mixture until it the fruits are beginning to fall apart. Take it off the heat and cool to room temperature. Pull out the star anise, the orange peels and the cinnamon stick and discard. Note: If you’re making mini-muffins, then you might want to puree the chutney till moderately smooth.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Butter or paper 24 muffin cups (or 48 mini-muffin cups). Either way, grease the tops of the tins as well since we are filling the cups all the way to the top so that the top of the muffins will spread out and bake onto the tin.
Together: In large bowl, whisk all of the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients. Make sure to sniff and enjoy the scents of the orange and cinnamon.
Now, pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and let your mini-chef “make slow circles in the bowl” to gently stir the ingredients till just combined.
Spoon or scoop some batter into each of your prepared muffin cups, filling them about a quarter of the way up. Next, spoon a little dollop of the chutney on top of the muffin batter, right in the center of each muffin. Finally, layer another scoop of the batter, filling the tins right to the top of the cup.
Big Person will pop these into the oven, baking about 20-25 minutes for big muffins, and 12-15 minutes for the minis. You can test whether they’re done by sticking a toothpick or cake tester down into one of the muffins. If it comes out clean, they’re ready to pull out of the oven.
Cool the muffins at least 10-15 minutes to make sure that the chutney won’t burn little tongues.
