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
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.
Video
Nutrition
These muffins are so yummy! I did cut the sugar to 1/2 cup, changed the vegetable oil (which is very bad for you) to olive oil, and did 1 cup whole grain spelt and 1 cup almond flour.
Can you use buttermilk instead of regular milk for this recipe.
Yes, that will work nicely.
Just made this! The flavor is bright and spring-like. Just perfect with a cup of tea! Based on other orange bread recipes, I made a few mods: used coconut oil, added 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tbsp yogurt. Also made a loaf instead of muffins. Cooked for 45-50 mins in a bread pan. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Upon reading the recipe, I sent it to my husband’s desk and asked if he’d make them for us for brunch! They were SO good! I took a couple of them to my neighbor and she gave them rave reviews as well! I added a light glaze with the juice and zest so they’d look extra pretty in a photo; they didn’t disappoint!
I just happened to have cardamom and oranges and have just baked these muffins. What a beautiful delicate combination with the taste of orange and cardamom. Thanks for the brilliant recipe.
I’m thrilled you liked them Helen, such a nice combo of flavors, isn’t it?
Sue, we love these muffins. I will addy cardamom to the dry ingredients next time as mine clumped in the wet. Thank you! Dawna
Delicious Muffins. I am not sure why the cardamom is not added to the dry ingredients so that it gets evenly distributed. The cardamom clumped in the wet ingredients. I will make these again adding the orange zest and cardamom to the dry ingredients.
This recipe is wonderful! I made them exactly as written once, and then halved the cardamom in the next batch. Both were lovely. I also really like how these muffins turn out, and will be using the recipe (minus orange and cardamom) to try other combos. Thank you for sharing!
I just took a batch out of my oven and they turned out beautifully. My husband will take some to work tonight and share with some coworkers.
This recipe is so legit! I use King Arthers 1-1 gluten free flour and they come out perfect. Today I used the same recipe and omitted the cardamom, swapped lemon for orange and added poppyseeds and almond extract and they came out just as perfect. Thank you so much for this recipe!!
Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun with it Leslie, thanks for the review!