Gluten-free Orange Blossom Muffins

Why are breakfast foods better than all other foods?

Seriously. What is it about waffles, pancakes, muffins, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs…wait what was I talking about again? Really though, even if you’re not eating it in the morning, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast for dinner, breakfast for lunch, breakfast for snacks, and don’t even get me started on brunch. Swoon.

Luckily, I’ve found some pretty incredible ways to make all my favorite breakfast recipes gluten free. These mini orange blossom muffins are heavenly. Covered in the sweetest, most citrusy glaze and moist even days after they’ve been cooked, they’re definitely a breakfast staple…even if I’ve been eating them mostly in the afternoon.

The recipe is adapted from this one from The Pioneer Woman. That should be verification enough for you that they’re delicious, but if you don’t believe me, then whip up these gluten-free beauties and see (and taste) for yourself.

Here are the ingredients you need. If you don’t have buttermilk, just add about 1/2 tablespoon to 1/2 cup regular milk and let it sit for a few minutes. I used all purpose gluten-free flour, but I think these would be delicious using entirely rice flour, too.

You get to zest out all of your frustrations! So therapeutic.

After you pop the muffins in the oven, you’ve got about 5 minutes before the house starts to smell amazing. Use this time to make your glaze.

Juice your orange.

Mix the brown sugar and the orange juice together, achieve happiness in glaze form.

These are best eaten warm, and you get to customize the glaze level to your personal glaze preferences. I recommend as much as possible, but that’s just me. This is really an excuse for you to sample as many muffins as you want at various glaze levels. Lucky you!

Gluten-free Orange Blossom Mini Muffins Recipe
Makes: 16 mini muffins     Prep: 15 minutes     Cook: 15 minutes
Adapted from: The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:
1 stick salted butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
1 cup all purpose gluten-free flour (I use Cup4Cup.)
1 egg
½ cup buttermilk
½ tsp baking soda
1 orange, zest and juice
½ cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 Tbs powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a mini-muffin tin.
2. Using a zester or box grater, zest entire orange. I found it easiest to collect all the zest on a paper plate.
3. In a standing mixer with paddle attachment, beat together the softened butter and white sugar. If you don’t have a standing mixer, a handheld is fine, or you can beat by hand until it is well combined.
4. Add egg, beat well. Add flour and beat until combined.
5. Mix baking soda in with buttermilk. Add buttermilk and baking soda mix into batter. Add zest into the batter and mix until zest is distributed throughout batter.
6. Scoop batter into mini-muffin tins, filling about ¾ full. Dough will be thick.
7. Bake for ~15 minutes or until the tops are lightly browning.
8. While the muffins are baking, juice the orange. Mine yielded about 1/3 cup juice.
9. Combine juice and brown sugar in a bowl and stir until all the sugar is dissolved.
10. Spoon the glaze over the muffins in the muffin tin as soon as they come out of the oven. It will seep in through the top and go down the sides.
11. Remove the muffins from the pan while they are still warm. I added 1 Tbs powdered sugar at this point to thicken the glaze up. Pour remaining glaze (or as much as you want) on muffins.
12. Serve warm. Store in an airtight container on the counter for two days, or in the fridge for four. These muffins are best eaten warm, so microwave after they’ve cooled.