Sunshine Citrus Muffins

In an effort to inject some sunshine into a dull Saturday morning I decided to make these from one of my favourite cookery books - Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I got this book in America and it's so beautifully photographed and the recipes are fantastic taking you from the basics of dough making right through to beautiful cakes, muffins and scones. The measurements are in cups you'll need a set of these if you intend to get this book and I would definitely recommend it.

Himself was still asleep when I made these and the gorgeous smell of orange and lemon wafted up the stairs and manged to wake him so he had to come downstairs, naturally to make sure everything was alright and not for a warm muffin fresh from the oven..................

These smell fantastic and made the house all summery and citrusy smelling, they are also great with cheese as I discovered last night after a few wines too many!!!


So you'll need:

115g sugar
grated zest of 1 orange
300g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt (I didn't use this as I use salted butter in my baking, scandalous as that may be!)
250ml freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp lemon extract (I probably used closer to 1/2 tsp as I wasn't being overly careful pouring)
4 oz butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
Optional: 150g moist raisins/sultanas (I didn't use these)

So, preheat your oven to Gas 5/190c. Spray your muffin tin with spray oil or butter the molds.
Rub the sugar and orange zest together (this is fantastic and makes the sugar smell A.MAZ. ING) in a large bowl. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt if using.
In another bowl or jug whisk the orange and lemon juice, butter, lemon extract, and eggs together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix.
Fold in the raisins/sultanas if you're using them.
Spoon the mixture into the 12 muffin shapes and bake for 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

Serve on it's own with a giant latte or with some cheese!!!


Also on a totally non-recipe related note, at the moment TK Maxx have fantastic cast iron pans and skillets for next to nothing from a range called Old Mountin so anyone who is in the market for one this might be a good time to take a look!

I also got a gorgeous book called The Dairy by Leanne Kitchen (cheesetastic name or what) for €7.99 and a complete bargain as the recipes are wonderful and all surround anything dairy related and the photos are so well shot. There's a series of 4 books with 3 more after The Dairy called the Butcher, The Baker and The Greengrocer and they're already on my amazon wishlist!!!

HHDD#21 - Tiramisu

I am barely getting my entry in for this round of Hey Hey it's Donna Day, literally by the skin of my teeth. I've been thinking about this all month and I've had so much stuff on with family and friends that I've hardly managed to do any cooking at all.

So seeing as today is a very beautiful day and it's supposed to rain tomorrow we decided to dine al fresco tonight a.k.a sitting inside the french doors as we were too lazy to get the patio table and chairs out. So homemade beef burgers and salad with goats cheese it was followed by a very deconstructed and simple tiramisu flavoured with orange, chocolate and honey. This was gorgeous, mascarpone is so good and I managed to get organic mascarpone too, lovely organic oranges slightly reduced to make a syrup, and the best chocolate - Cadburys flake!!!


So here's what you'll need for 2 people:

12 lady fingers/savoiardi biscuits, 6 per person
125g mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp honey
juice and zest of 2 oranges
cadburys flake or similar crumbled
1tsp galliano (or vanilla extract)

Zest the 2 oranges and then juice them. Put the juice in a pot and bring to the boil. Boil the juice for 2-3 mins until thickened very slightly. Cool.
Mix the mascarpone with the honey and galliano.
Place 2 biscuits on a plate, soak with the orange syrup and top with a dollop of the mascarpone.
Place another 2 biscuits on top, soak and top with mascarpone.
Do this a third time finishing with a dollop op mascarpone.
Sprinkle with orange zest and crumbled flake.

This was gorgeous, I was marginally worried it wouldn't be but it was light and sweet and perfect to enjoy sitting in the evening sun.

SHF #43 - Citrus - Pomelo and Lime Curd with Orange Curd, Orange Mousse and Lemon Lavender Butterfly Tuiles

All I have to say about this is YUM!!! There was no way I was passing up a chance to take on the citrus challenge of the year!!! Tartelette a.k.a Heléne is hosting this round of Sugar High Friday and it's a doosie, what could be better than citrus (apart from almond and cardamom) but really this is wonderful as I got a chance to really let my creative juices flow!

For my creation I took inspiration from various areas, my pomelo and lime curd is from the Elle's New England Kitchen who got it from the New York Times and I found it on Tastespotting, so a round about way of getting there, the mousse is from Bill Granger's book Bills Food but with the lemon mousse changed to orange, the orange curd is is made the same way as the pomelo and lime one and tuiles are a recipe I have printed out and have no notion where it's from but I've tinkered with it a bit and used Chocolate Gourmand's method. Phew, there a lot of people who are responsible for me putting this together and thanks to all of them for their continuing inspiration and endless knowledge.

So as this is shaping up to be a long post I'll try to cut the chat to a minimum, so here's the recipes

Pomelo and Lime Curd/Orange curd:

1 pomelo
1 lime
3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
125g sugar
Pinch of salt
4 tbsp butter at room temp

I washed my pomelo and lime as I couldn't get organic non-waxed ones. Grate zest from the pomelo and the lime and set aside.
Squeeze juice from both fruit into a sieve set over a bowl.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, whole eggs, sugar and salt. Whisk in the strained juice.
Transfer to a saucepan over a low heat and stir continuously until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, approx. 10-15 mins.
Add the zest and transfer to a sterilised jar or bowl, cover and cool.
I transferred mine to martini glasses and the rest to a jar.

For the orange curd I used the juice of 3 oranges and the zest of 2.


Once the pomelo and lime curd was set, I followed the same method and spooned a layer of orange curd on top.

Orange Mousse:

zest of 3 oranges
60 ml orange juice
185g caster sugar
4 eggs seperated
150g butter, cut into shunks

Put the orange zest, juice, sugar and egg yolks in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and cook, stirring constantly, for approx. 10 mins until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (this is another curd method that I've used before but it takes way longer to thicken).
Whisk in small ammounts of butter until it is all incorporated.
Allow to cool.
Whisk the egg whites together in a mixer until stiff peaks form.
Fold half of the egg whites into the orange mixture with a metal spoon and then fold in the second half.
Spoon the mixture over the curds and refrigerate until firm.

For the tuiles:

40g butter
50g icing sugar
60g plain flour
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp lavender syrup (I've been dying to use this since I bought it from Avoca, it's also available at www.foodhallonline.com)

Preheat the oven to Gas 6/200.
Place a flat tray in teh oven to heat with a non-stick sheet on it, I used a silicone baking sheet but I am sure well buttered parchment would do aswell as long as you butter again between batches or change the parchment for each set of new tuiles.

Cream the butter, sugar, flour, zest and lavender syrup together until it's light and fluffy. Add the flour slowly until just mixed in.
Heat a large serving spoon of the mixture in a bowl in the microwave for about 8 seconds so you achieve a pouring consistency.
Place a tablespoon of the dough on the heated baking sheet and spread out gently until the tuile looks quite thin.
Place in the oven and bake for 4-6 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cut into shaped or roll around the handle of a wooden spoon to make curls.

Feel free to cook your tuiles for longer but I like mine pale and chewy as opposed to darker and crispier. Serve with physallis and preferably after a bbq with friends!


This was a gorgeous recipe and one of the first I've used many inspirations and spent time on making notes etc. I really enjoyed making this as it's the first curd I've made that set up properly. You can't really see the layers in the photos but the mousse and orange curd were u gasp after the sweetness of the mousse and the first curd layer. I'm still eating the pomelo and lime curd on toast and trying to make it last as long as possible but the orange one is long gone as the husbag was eating spoons of it!!!!