THE HEARTSTONE INN'S ORANGE DATE MUFFINS

  The Heartstone Inn is located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, a beautiful B & B in a house on the National Registry of Historic Places. We haven't stayed there, but fortunately I found their cookbook either at an estate sale or at Hillcrest Thrift Shop. I haven't been to an estate sale since the first of the year. If that is where I bought the cookbook, it is a shame I am just now getting around to trying a recipe from it. The cookbook is quickly becoming my go-to cookbook right now. I am never disappointed in B & B cookbooks.

The first recipe I decided to try was for these delicious Orange Date Muffins. I am trying a new plan that so far is working really well. Last weekend I sat down with seven or eight cookbooks and started flipping through them. That was a little easier than it might sound because I had already looked through them and marked a number of likely recipes with post-it strips. This time though I had a notepad and if I saw a recipe I wanted to try soon, I wrote down the name, page, and name of cookbook. So far in a week, I have made three of the recipes and one that was on the page before the one I had marked. So often I mark recipes and then don't get back to them. This plan is working out much better.

Wayne was playing golf Thursday but had a late tee-time. The house was cool since it was in the upper 40s outside. When it is like this I like to turn on the oven to heat up the kitchen. It's also good if I then bake something. 😉 He didn't realize what I was doing so he was surprised when he got ready to leave and I told him I had made muffins for them. They were still warm from the oven. I couldn't help but eat one before he left just to make sure they tasted good. Oh my gosh! They were more than just good. I told him all the good stuff - half whole wheat and made with a 1/4 cup honey and no other added sugar. Of course there is natural sugar in the orange juice and dates, but I only ate one and only sent four. The recipe does make 12 muffins so the natural sugar is spread out.

ORANGE DATE MUFFINS

1       cup whole wheat flour*

1       cup all-purpose flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2    teaspoon salt

1       tablespoon grated orange rind (I used dried orange rind)

2/3    cup chopped dates

1       egg, beaten

3/4    cup orange juice 

1/4    cup honey or sugar (I used honey)

1/3    cup oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray or line with muffin papers a 12-cup muffin pan. Set aside.

Stir together the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Add chopped dates to dry ingredients to coat and separate. 

Mix liquid ingredients together in another bowl. (TIP...Use a 1 cup glass measuring cup to measure orange juice and then add honey til liquids measure 1 cup. Use a rubber spatula to remove honey that sinks to bottom, but you only mess up 1 measuring cup.) (Oops, I forgot to take a picture)

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add liquid ingredients.

Stir just until moistened with a wooden spoon.

Divide batter between the 12 "cups".

Bake for 20 minutes or until done.

Remove from muffin tin and cool on wire rack. Makes 12 muffins.

*You can use 2 cups of all-purpose flour if you do not have whole wheat flour.