Orange and Cardamom Muffins ~ delicately fragrant muffins flavored with bright orange zest and warm, spicy cardamom, this easy muffin recipe is unique and delicious!
For a quick, easy, comforting breakfast, nothing beats my homemade orange and cardamom muffin recipe!
Is anybody making muffins anymore? It seems like they’ve totally gone out of fashion, right? But every time I make a batch I’m reminded of why I love them. These orange and cardamom muffins bake up so nice and tall, with a sugary crust on top, how could you resist? I don’t know why I thought of combining citrus with cardamom, I don’t think I’ve done it on the blog before, but boy, it’s so perfect. Neither taste is overpowering but they blend beautifully. The aroma is especially great when they’re just out of the oven, Definitely going to use this combo again!
You know I love my one bowl no-mixer recipes
They make baking from scratch so much more do-able. There’s less mess, and less lag time between the inspiration to bake and your first bite. Just grab your bowl and a whisk and you’re off to the races.
A plain muffin needs a little something something on the top, right?
I used my favorite Sparkling Sugar to add a little glitz and a sweet crunch. Less homey, more coffee shop. You could use regular sugar if that’s all you’ve got, but sparkling sugar has a bigger crystal and a great texture. I recommend picking some up from Amazon.
Muffins are nice to have around because they’re already pre-portioned and they keep well. Pop day old muffins in the micro for 20 seconds to revive that amazing aroma. They’re special enough for office potluck parties, especially in winter when a cozy muffin is everything.
One of the saving graces of deep winter is all the juicy citrus that comes into season.
It’s surprising how many different ways you can incorporate citrus into baking. In this recipe I use the juice and zest of the orange, but it’s the zest that really brings the orange flavor home. The outer orange colored part of the peel, or the zest, contains the flavor and aroma oils, which provide the true essence of the fruit flavor. The more you use, the more flavor payoff you’ll get.
How to zest an orange
- The zest of citrus fruit is the very outer part of the peel…the part that is colored.
- When you zest citrus fruit you are looking to remove just that outer colored part, with as little as possible of the white part underneath, which is bitter.
- I highly recommend using a citrus zester, which is a tool specifically created to do the job.
- Be sure to zest your fruit before cutting or juicing!
- Zest your fruit as close to adding it to your recipe as possible, because the oils start to dissipate quickly.
More wintery breakfast ideas ~
- Warm Maple Oat Nut Smoothie
- Fresh Tangerine Scones
- Homemade Chicken Apple Sausage
- Fresh Ginger and Pear Cake
Orange and Cardamom Muffins
Video
Equipment
- standard muffin pan
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- zest of 1 large orange, grated
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Topping
- 3 tbsp sparkling sugar (or regular sugar), Find sparkling sugar on Amazon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and butter a muffin tin, or line with muffin tin liners.
- Whisk together all the wet ingredients well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, then add to the wet ingredients and fold everything together until there are no dry bits of flour left.
- Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins, and top with a sprinkling of the sparkling sugar.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes until risen and starting to turn golden brown around the edges. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out without wet batter clinging to it.
Nutrition
These were super delish! I had never imagined that the combo of orange and cardamom would work so well. I plan on making these again.
These were extremely dry. I would put in more juice next time, add more zest and cardigan. A little bland. A nice combo of flavours though. More like tea cakes then muffins so I would make them in small muffin holders next time. Followed recipe precisely.
Sorry these weren’t a win for you Barb. They may have over baked a bit if they were dry, muffins are so prone to that!
First time to make these muffins. I live in Ireland and very hard to get ground cardamom. So easy to put together and tastes beautiful
I love any muffins made with orange. Very excited to try these. You HAVE to try Orange Date muffins Sue. That is an amazing combination. Thanks for another recipe to get excited about!
I just put them on the schedule for next fall/winter 🙂
I made these to share with coworkers and I think I might make more just for myself! I did use mixed spice instead of just cardamom, but I also love cardamom and will certainly try them as written. Fabulous and easy muffins!
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Yummy muffins. I made these with Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour. Also increased baking powder by one teaspoonful and let the batter sit in the refrigerator for about an hour before filling the muffin tin. They came out perfectly and were not in the least gritty, as GF baked goods often are. Adding extra leavening and resting time for the batter were were tips I found on a GF baking site. The site recommended always using 2 tsp of baking powder for every cup of GF flour (I only used 1 1/2 per cup of flour in my adaptation of this recipe) and explained that allowing GF batters to rest allows GF flours to better absorb liquid and and therefore reduce grittiness. Apparently GF flours absorb liquid more slowly than wheat flours. I used a large CaraCara orange to achieve a nice orange flavor. Will use more cardamom next time.
Our gf readers will love this info, thanks Britt.
Britt I’m so happy to read this!! I’m new to GF baking and have had mixed results. Can’t wait to try this with your tips!!
Thank you, Britt, for gluten-free info. I was searching comments to see if anybody had tried it with gluten-free flour. Glad to know it worked, and also happy to receive the other info about prep with gluten-free.
So delicious! I didn’t find them bland, but I used freshly ground cardamom. A nice, light afternoon muffin to go with my tea. The texture of the muffin top was great too, perfect amount of crunch!
Loved this recipe. Added some dried cranberries and made it with olive oil.
I just made these and I really did enjoy them. I wouldn’t say they are bland but if you want more than a very subtle cardamom and orange flavor I would double the zest and cardamom. The texture is so good and they baked up with a nice muffin top, no spreading over the pan.