Cranberry/Orange Muffins√

 

On Sunday we went to the Edible Plant Project's Nursery out at Crazy Woman Farm to help Michael's on his last day before he heads South for 6 months.

I took it on myself to tidy the huge unwieldy mess of pots. Four years of leaves had fallen onto and into it and created a delicious mulch in all its nooks and crannies. All kinds of worms and ants were frolicking in the mulch and at the bottom of the biggest pile I found these on one of the supporting beams that had half-composted back to the earth.

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Gabriella brought delicious naturally fizzy fruit and herb drinks... Norm brought tangerines picked that morning from his tree and I brought some scrummy gluten- and dairy-free muffins. 

There's often a volunteer who can't tolerate wheat and another who can't tolerate dairy but the eggs are a must for lightness. And protein. So they aren't vegan. Using half white rice and half brown rice flour makes the muffins less heavy and gritty than they would be with brown rice flour alone. Adding a bit of potato starch lightens the crumb! 

This is such an easy recipe it almost makes itself. If you are in a terrible hurry you can save time by forgetting about the zest (it'll be less orangey if you do) and throwing in the cranberries whole in which case you'll want to measure a few more.

Set the oven to 350 degrees and start by zesting the orange and halving the cranberries.
 
MIX:

• 3 eggs
• ¾ cup grapeseed or sunflower oil (i.e. a light vegetable oil)
• ¾ cup orange juice 

ADD:

• 1 cup fresh, halved cranberries (or 1½ cups whole berries)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp orange zest (or more or less to taste)

SIFT and MIX:

• 1 cup white rice flour
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1 tbsp potato starch
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda

Spoon into a muffin tin (the cups should be about ¾ full) and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean). Cool on a rack for as long as you can bear to wait.
We ate ours with Roasted Fig and Lemon Jam I had made earlier this summer when I was engaged in mortal combat with a local squirrel who had scattered half eaten figs all over the yard. I picked the rest and made a big pot of jam.