ORANGE MUFFINS WITH HIBISCUS GLAZE

Muffin Sunday is back with a vengeance. Well, I had a small diatribe with myself about these muffins, as they kind of look like cupcakes, with the pretty pink glaze and everything. But they have the typical muffin texture and typical muffin taste (?) and typical muffin deliciousness, so they definitely are muffins. Also, it’s not Cupcake Sunday, it’s Muffin Sunday, you know! Anyhoooww, if you can get hold of the dried hibiscus flowers, go for it and use them for the glaze as hibiscus goes really well with orangey citrusy stuff (and makes super good tea) (downside: it’s pink). 

I’ll make up for the unbearable girly prettiness of these things next week, with some vegan deep-fried cow or something to that effect.

ORANGE MUFFINS WITH HIBISCUS GLAZE

380g (3 ¾ cup) plain flour

180g (1 cup) caster sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

75g (1/2 cup) margarine, melted

360ml (1 ½ cup) soya milk or other non-dairy milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

juice and zest of 1 orange

Glaze:

60ml (¼ cup) hot water

1 tablespoon dried hibiscus flowers

60g (1 cup) icing sugar

Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F and line two muffin trays with cases. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and sugar. Add the melted margarine, the milk, oil, vanilla and orange juice and zest and quickly mix everything together with a metal spoon, until the ingredients are just combined. The batter should still be lumpy. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. Put the tray in the oven and bake for 18 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the muffins comes out clean. Cool in the muffin tray on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then take the muffins out and let cool completely on the rack.

In the meantime prepare the glaze: start by placing the dried hibiscus flowers into the hot water and set aside for 15 minutes. Then strain the hibiscus leaves from the water, which should now be dark red. Place the powdered sugar in a bowl and pour in 1 to 2 tablespoons of the hibiscus water, a bit at a time, until you get a smooth thick glaze. Spoon a tablespoon of the glaze onto each muffin and decorate with candied orange peel if you like.