Orange cardamom muffins are delicately flavored with bright orange zest and warm, aromatic cardamom ~ this easy and unique muffin recipe is a family favorite.
For a quick, easy, comforting breakfast, nothing beats my homemade orange cardamom muffin recipe. Here’s why you need these in your life:
- The orange cardamom flavor combo is a-mazing and I bet you’ve never had it before! Neither taste is overpowering but they blend beautifully. The aroma is especially great when they’re just out of the oven, Â Definitely going to use this combo again!
- Muffins are probably the easiest of all breakfast bakes, ready from start to finish in 30 minutes.
- Uses oil not butter for a moister muffin that keeps well.
- These muffins bake up nice and tall with a little crunchy sparkle on top.
what readers say about orange cardamom muffins
DEB: “Wonderful flavor! Cardamom is not on everyone’s radar but should be. One of my favorite spices!”
VALORA: “I love this recipe! The muffins turned out soft and buttery with the perfect balance of orange and spice. They aren’t too sweet and pair well with a hot cup of tea or coffee. 10/10”
HELEN: “What a beautiful delicate combination with the taste of orange and cardamom. Thanks for the brilliant recipe.”
EMILY: “My 8 y/o daughter rates these 1 Million out of 10! We love the flavour and light, fluffy texture. Thank you for the excellent recipe.”
TONI: “The best muffins i have made!”
ELLEN: “Being of Scandinavian heritage I don’t need convincing to use cardamom. With the orange addition this recipe is 5 star. I have even made it in a loaf pan. You will not be disappointed.”
a few baking tips for orange cardamom muffins
Don’t skimp on that zest! 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 in these orange cardamom muffins. The more you use, the more flavor payoff you’ll get.
Adjust cardamom to your taste ~ if you’re a newbie, use one teaspoon, but if you love the flavor like I do, increase to 1 1/2 teaspoons.
Sparkly muffin tops ~ I used my favorite Sparkling Sugar to add a little glitz and a sweet crunch to these muffin tops. 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.
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.
related: How to Make Citrus Sugar
orange cardamom for special diets (and variations)
Several readers have made these gluten free using a 1:1 baking mix.
Replace the dairy milk with your favorite plant based milk such as almond, oat, or coconut milk.
Replace the sparkling sugar with a glaze made with orange juice and powdered sugar.
Add 1/2 cup or more chopped walnuts or dried cranberries to the batter.
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Orange and Cardamom Muffins
Video
Equipment
- standard muffin pan
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- zest of 1 large orange, finely grated
- 1 tsp ground cardamom, use 1 1/2 teaspoons for a more pronounced cardamom flavor.
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.
Notes
Nutrition
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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!