Groaning muffins

On the first night of our Naturally Prepared childbirth class, Samanda introduced us to Groaning Muffins.  Flavorful, hearty muffins with chocolate chips?  Yes, please.

Based on the name, I guess the idea is to make these when you’re IN labor, as a labor project, but I didn’t want to wait.  Also, most movement and activity requires some form of sound effect these days, whether it’s groaning, oofing, or grunting, so my timing was not entirely inappropriate.

She gave us the recipe, and I intended to make them for weeks, but first I had to procure the organic oranges, not something that I keep on hand in the kitchen.  As a rule, I avoid citrus at this time of year, as it is not at all in season in the U.S., but I made an exception for these muffins.

Groaning Muffins
In a food processor, blend the following wet ingredients together (For best results, process the oranges for a couple of minutes by themselves before adding the remaining wet ingredients.):

2 medium-sized *organic* oranges (organic, please, because you’re eating the
whole thing, peel included ! –chopped into pieces, seeds & green nubbin end
removed)
1 cup milk + 1 T white vinegar (soy milk works fine here)
2/3 cup coconut oil or other muffin-friendly equivalent (safflower,
sunflower oil); or 2/3 c. melted butter or Earth Balance
2 large eggs

Combine the following dry ingredients in the mixing bowl :

3 tsp. baking POWDER
2 tsp. baking SODA
½ tsp. salt (omit salt if using Earth Balance or salted butter)
1 cup (110 g) oat bran
2 ½ (330 g) cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup (180 g) lightly packed brown sugar

Slowly stir wet ingredients into the dry mix until just combined (do not
over mix), then add:

1 cup choc chips
1 cup chopped (baking) dates

Grease muffin tins before filling. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350°F.
Makes 24 muffins.

I bought a bag of six oranges, which would have been enough for 3 recipes, but instead I decided to be clever and multiply the above recipe by 1.5, thus using 3 oranges.  This recipe increase almost exceeded the capacity of my food processor, so unless you have a particularly large food processor, stick to the recipe.  My 1.5x recipe yielded 30 muffins plus a mini loaf.

We enjoyed a few fresh and froze most of them for later.  I also chopped and froze the remaining 3 oranges so I can make another batch in a few weeks.

You can find the original Groaning Muffin recipe here.