Whole Orange Muffins

By bakers_delight85

Ingredients

• 3 large navel oranges
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup safflower or vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots
• 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
• 10 tsp. raw or turbinado sugar

Preparation

Step 1

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Line 10 muffin cups with paper liners.
Zest two of the oranges and chop finely. Set aside.
Remove the peel and the white pith from all three oranges and cut the pulp, with membranes, into quarters. (If not using navel oranges, remove seeds.) Place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse until pureed. Pour into a measuring cup. There should be 1 ½ cups. (Add additional orange pulp if less.) Return to the bowl of the processor and add eggs, oil, brown sugar, almond extract, and reserved orange zest. Pulse to combine.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt. Add the orange mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Gently fold in the apricots and poppy seeds. Spoon into the prepared muffin cups, mounding the batter slightly above the rims of the paper liners. Sprinkle each top with 1 tsp. of the raw sugar. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until the centers are barely firm when light pressed with a finger or a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.