Dec 28, 2012

Recycle those Orange Skins


Orange Cornbread Muffins
After juicing all those oranges from your orange tree you can recycle the skins and use them to bake cupcakes and muffins. I just hated to throw all those beautiful orange skins into the compost bin, so I came up with a way to recycle them by turning them into muffin and cupcake pans. Years ago, when I was a young Girl Scout hiking the Appalachian Trail, we would cut the top off an orange , eat the inside and poor cake batter inside the orange –about ½ way and replace the top of the orange and wrap in foil, and place on hot embers and bake. That was back in the days when Girl Scouts still cooked on fire. So that was my inspiration for the orange cupcakes and muffins. This recipe makes about 8-9 muffins. Pre heat oven to 405 F® Clean & Cut 4 oranges in ½ and juice them. I use a Phillips electric juicer and it works great. The orange skins can be stored a few days in the refrigerator.
 Ingredients
 1 pk of Martha White Sweet Yellow Cornbread & Muffin Mix ( 7 oz)
 1 beaten egg
 ½ cup fresh orange juice
 1-2 tablespoon flax seed meal
 1 tablespoon brown sugar or raw sugar
 1 pk or teaspoon of stevia
 Spice it up –options
 1 teaspoon or more cinnamon
 Some orange zest- 1 tablespoon or more or boiled tangerine peelings (boiling 15 min. removes bitterness)
 ½ teaspoon mace or nutmeg.
 I used a 2 cup size glass measuring cup to mix everything. First add the ½ cup of orange juice and zests or peels and use a hand blender to chop up the peel and juice. (Or put it in a kitchen blender) Add the muffin mix, top with beaten egg and spices and mix it all together with a fork. Do not over mix Place the orange skins on a muffin pan. Add 1.5 tablespoon of mix to each – fill to just below the rim. Do not over fill. Place in hot oven and bake 17 min. Thick orange skins may take a little longer to cook the muffin mix. Muffins are best eaten with a spoon while hot.