Behold: A recipe re-make! There comes a time in a blogger lady’s life when she needs to revise and re-vamp the recipes she blogged about when she was a blogging newby. Over the weekend, I received a comment on a recipe I posted way back in February 2012, titled “Brandy-Soaked Strawberry Orange Spelt Flour Muffins.”
The commenter let me know that the liquid-to-flour ratio was whackster (but she was a lot nicer and much less gangster in her phraseology) and as a result, the muffins took longer to bake than my recipe indicated. This is my worst nightmare (enter dramatic music). My recipes are dear to my soul, my readers are my home slices, and when my kindred recipe spirits fail me, I get a little berzerko nuts.
Aside: If I were you, I’d be wondering what the haystack “brandy-soaked” muffins are and why would anyone want a sogged out muffin? Fortunately, I have gotten slightly better at making post titles less confusing, but the gist of the original recipe is I soaked the strawberries in brandy prior to adding them to muffin batter, hence the “brandy-soaked…strawberry” And they’re made with spelt flour, an ancient grain related to wheat. And there’s orange rind in them. Yeah. End Aside.
After I read the comment, I did one of these: “Whaaaaaa” pushed my face 10 feet closer to my laptop screen, then did a little shrug and a “reallyyyy?” And then some pacing, because pacing’s how I get things done. And immediately after this little tissy fit freak show parade was over, I hopped up, went to the store for a couple of ingredients, and baked the recipe again. Twice. Suuuuure, I had a laundry list of other things to do, but it was rainy, and rainy-day baking is the best form of procrastination. Eva.
For the first batch, I followed my original recipe to the T and got a similar result as the commenter, although that didn’t stop me from downing the muffins straight out of the oven, burning the roof of my mouth. Molten muffins hurt so good! AGH! With the amount of liquid, the muffins needed an additional 10 minutes of baking time and because there was more honey than necessary, the muffins were a little difficult to get out of the pan. Again: did not stop me from going hyena all up on my muffins. BUT, I can see how scraping a muffin out of a pan would be annoying when there’s something very gratifying about the little loves popping right out.
Here’s the photo from the original post:
I want to squeeeeeze its cute little hiney.
The second round, I made adjustments to the recipe and now I’m confident this muffin is one of the dandiest I’ve made. Essentially what we have is a boozed-up strawberry orange muffin with spelt flour. I realized the soaking-the-strawberries-in-brandy bit was just fools gold, so I simply added the brandy and strawberries to the batter separately. Boom. Booze. Although the brandy is completely optional, it makes the muffins something special, so I definitely encourage adding it.
Lesson learned: there will be times when a recipe re-make is in order. I love and appreciate your feedback. Constructive criticism is definitely welcome, as I want my recipes to wiggle their way into your hearts and home the same way as they have mine. Thanks for your patience and your willingness to participate in this here blog!
Strawberry Orange Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon brandy*
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice
- 4 ripe strawberries chopped into bits
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped, optional
- 1 cup spelt flour
- Zest of 1 orange
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1/3 cup honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a buttered/sprayed muffin pan.
- In a bowl, combine the walnuts, spelt flour, orange zest, baking powder and salt.
- In a seperate bowl, combine the egg, coconut milk, oil, vanilla extract, orange juice and brandy. Mix until combined then stir in the chopped strawberries.
- Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry mixture and stir to combine.
- Add the honey and stir to combine.
- Pour the batter into a lightly oiled muffin pan and fill the holes 3/4 of the way up.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins test clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow muffins to cool 20 minutes.
- Use a butter knife and run it between the the muffin and the edge of the pan to help the muffins pop out.
- Serve with butter and honey
Notes
Okay, so I have never used orange a flavoring. I only eat them, but these just look SO good! Plus, the coconut milk and the brandy and the strawberries! Holy yum! What a serious muffin!
There are definitely many times I go to remake a recipe and wonder what the heck I was thinking the first time–I think (or I hope) that’s just part of the cooking/baking process! The consistency of these looks amazing though, and I love the addition of coconut milk!
So glad I’m not the only one, Kelsey! I am appreciating more and more the exact science behind baking and certainly don’t mind revamping recipes if it means I end up with a kitchen full of muffins 🙂 Have a great day!
A boozy muffin. I’m in! These sound fabulous.
Love this post! Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about re-making some of my recipes from my early blogging days….like the times I posted without any photos (what was I thinking?!?!?!?!) and some that totally make no sense.
What does make sense, is boozy muffins for breakfast! Yes, please!
I am glad you are so frank and now I realize that I am not the only one who has had to revisit and redo recipes. The muffins look perfect and delicious!
These are gorgeous, Julia! I love the strawberry-orange flavor together and the big pat of butter on the muffins in your last shot… so tempting!
Nom nom nom nom NOMMMMMMMM. I totally get the bezerko nuts thing when you find out a recipe didn’t turn out for someone. I’m glad this one got itself all straightened out, though, bc it look glawwwwwweous!
You know how much I love muffins, right!? These are calling to me!
Oh these sounds like the perfect summer muffin!
I’ve been there and done that. I always have the fear of putting my recipes out on the interweb. I worry and worry, until someone gives me good news. I’ve baked things 8x already. I totally understand where you’re coming from. My husband gifted me a new engagement ring in February, but all I could think about was a negative comment I received on a cookie recipe. I obsessed about it until I realized that not everyone is going to like nuts in their cookies. Needless to say, the hubs was upset that I wasn’t as enthusiastic about his gift. He’s still talking about it (I’ll probably never live it down), and I still feel really bad. I like these new and improved muffins.
I’ve never tried using spelt flour before, but these look delish! This is the first time I’ve visited your site – I very much enjoyed your writing on this post. Pinning it now!
hi there!
I have a bunch of spelt flour id like to use up in my pantry… im loving the idea of this recipe… but what do u think will happen if i use LITE COCONUT milk instead? At the moment its all i have…. just wondering.
thanks!!
Hi Andrea! Thanks so much for your interest! The muffins are great, I know you’ll love them! I’ve never tried the recipe with lite coconut milk, but because it is more runny than full-fat, I would recommend using a little bit less than the recipe calls for to start out..if it seems like the batter can handle the full 1/3 cup, then definitely add the rest. The muffins may require a little more baking time since the batter will be slightly thinner, but I would assume they should turn out. The fat in the full-fat coconut milk helps bind the recipe together and make it moist, so I imagine the muffins may turn out a little less moist with lite coconut milk, but I think they will still be great! Let me know if you end up trying it!! 🙂
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Hi there, can I use almond milk instead of coconut milk?
Thank you!
Hiya!!
I pinned this recipe a couple of days ago from one of the clean eating boards. I’m trying to lose weight but I have such a sweet tooth!! I gave them a try earlier today…….I hope you dont mind but I switched a couple of ingredients to bring the calories down a bit……
I changed the olive oil to coconut oil and swapped coconut milk to almond milk. I also left out the brandy!!
They are delish!!! Light, fluffy and a bit tangy!! Love them, thank you!! Xxx
Awesome!! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe and I always encourage substitutions 🙂 I tend to ignore calories in my baking recipes, which is something I need to pay more attention to. Great thinking and thanks so much for your feedback, Terri!