MOMCAB Mufflets

MOMCAB stands for
Mandarin Orange Maraschino Cherry Almond Banana
and Mufflets are mini muffins

This is a recipe I stole and modified.  It originated from the Old Fashioned Living forum as a recipe for chocolate orange banana bread, but I over-saturated on chocolate recently, so I thought I'd do something more fruity.  Plus, I wanted tiny muffins I could serve for tea.

I must have really hit on something here, because my aunt came to visit and stole a bunch of them!  These muffins are great in the morning with my coffee, and also make a great afternoon tea tasty. 

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3 TBSP vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 tsp orange extract
1 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup orange juice
4 TBSP sour cream
3 very ripe bananas (2 cups puree)
1+ cup mandarin orange slices
Maraschino cherries

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs, and mix in oil, orange and almond extracts, orange juice and sour cream.  Add to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon.

In a separate bowl mash the bananas with a fork.  Separate the orange slices into small bits.  Puree with a hand mixer or food processor. 

Note: I used canned mandarin orange slices that were already quite soft and mushy.  I also like having fruit chunks in my muffins, so I left the fruit mixture a little bit lumpy. 

Add fruit to batter, stirring gently, and pour into greased muffin tins.  Fill each cup 3/4 full.  Place cherry on top of batter, pressing down lightly.  Bake at 325 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Variations: Add chopped pecans or walnuts.  I used one whole maraschino cherry per muffin in this batch, but my next batch I plan to dice the cherries and add a bunch to the batter.  I also want to try this with cranberries instead of cherries.  But then it would be MOCAB instead of MOMCAB. :)

I made a dozen full size muffins too, just for grins, and I set the cherry in the center, then covered it with another dollop of batter.  As you can see in this photo, the cherry sank to the bottom of the muffin.  It was kind of nice to serve that and have the cherry be a center-surprise.

Comments

[David]

It's sabotage, I tell ya! Sabotage! First, I get the cranberry-streussel muffin recipe in email, now this! But Mufflets? Nah... FULL SIZED MUFFINS for this puppy!

Oh, yum!

[kasturi aka karen]

Hi, I love your site, especially the photo of the muffins in the baking pan! I have several blogs (!) and I think I'll blogroll you to my knitting one! This is fun!

karen

[Christine]

Heheh, sorry D! Didn't mean to sabotage your diet. [innocent smile, followed by evil laughter...] Hey Karen, thanks for visiting! My gramma taught me how to knit, but I haven't done any knitting for years. I'll prolly pick it up again sometime soon. I got into crochet some years back too, and then I tried quilting. I'm kind of a boxcar bum when it comes to crafts and stuff ... I never stay in one place too long. But I always come back. :)