Marmalade Muffins

I've been cooking and baking my little heart out lately. And I've never been happier. A lot of the time, I think "I could do this for a living", but then I feel guilty that my parents paid for four years for an EXPENSIVE college and not try to find a job in that career field. It's been quite the dilemma for me for the past 6 months. But I keep coming to the conclusion that I'll keep trekkin along with this job search and hopefully something will come my way (for the 2nd time).

Enough of that, here are muffins. The Pioneer Woman's muffins. I just recently started reading her blog (http://thepioneerwoman.com/) after I saw her on "Throwdown". She seemed so cute and I feel like she connected with me in a way. Her food is so simple, but always looks so delicious. Mark had noticed me ignoring him for days as I started reading her blog, so for Christmas, I got my her cookbook! I pretty much wanted to make everything in there, but these marmalade muffins realllly stood out. I love oranges, I love muffins, seems like a no brainer. So I made them, and they were soooo tasty. The orange glaze, the pancake-ish texture, the orange zest flavor...delicious. And here is ze recipe. Happy baking, lovelies!

P.S. here is my baby; my brand new, green KitchenAid stand mixer. I'm in love with it. Expect much more baking now...

Marmalade Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 oranges
• 1/2 lbs (2 sticks) of butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup firmly pack brown sugar (I used 2 cups of confectioners because my brown sugar was literally a rock)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Begin by grating the zest from the oranges.
   
   Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Crack in the eggs and mix until well combined. Sift the flour onto a sheet of wax paper and add it to the bowl. Gently stir in the mixture using as few strokes as possible (the more mixing, the tougher the muffins).
   
   
3. In a small measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and baking soda.
   
   Add the mixture to the muffin batter and mix until just combined.
4. Add the orange zest and mix until just combined, again be careful not to overmix (BAD).
   
   
5. Grease 24 mini muffins tins (I used 12 regular sized) and fill each 2/3rds full with the batter.
   
   Bake for 12 to 17 minutes until light brown. Watch to make sure they don't get too brown.
6. While they are baking, prepare the glaze but juicing both oranges that you zested. Add the orange juice and brown sugar to a medium bowl and stir together just until combined. It will not dissolve and that ok; the glaze should be grainy.
7. Remove the muffins from the oven and immediately drizzle the glaze over the top. Coat throughly. Serve warm.
   
   

Here is the recipe on her blog: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/orange_mini-muf/