Date Orange Muffins

   When we lived in Brantford we used to buy un-pasturized honey from a local beekeeper. One day she randomly gave me a cookbook, the "Ontario Honey Recipe Book", and I went home and tried a few of the recipes right away.
   Honey lends an unexpected flavour to foods, and I enjoyed using it. One of my favourite recipes though was this Date Orange Muffin recipe. I hadn't made these in a long time though, but want to try them again, only changing a few things to suit us now. They are gluten free, dairy free, and using half honey, half maple syrup (because my neighbour stopped by with syrup he had made!). The result was fantastic, and these muffins were as good as I remembered.

Date Orange Muffins
Adapted from the "Ontario Honey Recipe Book"

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole orange, thoroughly washed
• 1/4 Cup orange juice, or lemon juice, fresh or bottled
• 1/2 Cup pitted dates (not diced), plus 5-7 more pitted, and diced (the extra dates are optional)
• 1/2 Cup Coconut oil, melted
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 Cup honey 
• 1/4 Cup maple syrup 
• 1/2 Cup Almond meal
• 1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
• 1/2 Cup walnut meal 
• 1 Tsp baking powder
• 1 Tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt

*If you don't have walnut meal, just make up the difference with more almond meal.

* *If you are not gluten free, the original recipe calls for 3/4 cup of honey (I reduced the amount to suit us/the type of flours I was using), and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour.


Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 Degrees F. Line a muffins tray with muffin liners
   
2. Cut orange into sections, and remove seeds if any. Drop into a blender, and blend until the rind is finely ground. Yup. you use an ENTIRE orange! 
3. Add juice, pitted (not diced) dates, coconut oil, egg, honey and maple syrup and blend until well mixed.
4. In a large bowl mix together the flours with the baking powder, baking soda, salt.
5. Make a well in the centre of the dry mix, and add the blended liquids.
6. Stir only until moistened. Gently stir in the extra diced dates (if using). Let this mixture sit for a few minutes so the coconut flour absorbs sufficient moisture.
7. Spoon into muffin tins, and bake for 18-20 minutes, until the tops are browning, and a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs. 

   A whole, fresh orange gives these muffins an incredible, bright taste.  

   I hope these wonderful, fresh tasting muffins make it into your list of things-to-try!