taraji and brad muffins

i usually bake about twice a week.  i love baking because it calms me down and makes me happy. :o)  somehow, my life got so busy that i went more than a week without baking anything.  how could i let that happen???  it was about 10 pm when i realized i couldn't go a minute longer without baking.  that's when i pulled out my "recipes i wanna try" file.  (do you have a file like this?  what's in it?)

even though this is my first dorie greenspan recipe, i know she's an excellent cookbook writer.  i mean, there's a even group of bloggers that have been baking their way through her (huge) cookbook together.  

i love dorie's headnote: "the orange flavor in these delicate, cakey and generously blueberried muffins is in the background, like a play's prompter - present, but only to encourage the performance of the star.  in this case, the blueberries."  this description was all the encouragement i needed to get in the kitchen.  and it's accurate.  if the blueberries are brad pitt, the orange is taraji p. henson.

adapted from dorie greenspan's baking: from my home to yours

orange berry muffins

grated zest and juice of  1 orange

about 3/4 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

3 tablespoons honey

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries

preheat oven to 400 degrees.  put paper liners in a 12 cup muffin pan.  pour orange juice in a glass measuring cup.  add enough buttermilk to make 1 cup.  whisk in eggs, honey and butter.  put sugar and zest in a large bowl.  rub together with your fingertips until fragrant.  whisk in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir everything together with a spatula.  stir in blueberries then fill paper liners.  bake for 22 - 25 minutes.