These tasty and tender muffins come with a nice, gentle orange flavor and are filled with whole grain goodness. I recommend using King Arthur white whole wheat flour for this recipe so that the orange flavor is not dominated by the more tannic flavors of more conventional whole wheat flours, although you can easily substitute regular all-purpose flour, if you desire. The recipe is below. It makes nine medium-sized muffins.

Orange Whole Wheat Muffins

• 1½ cup King Arthur white whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons sugar (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons)
• 2 tablespoons orange zest, approximately (from 1–2 oranges, depending on size)
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• ¾ cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil
• ½ teaspoon orange extract
• 2 teaspoons honey (preferably orange blossom honey)
• 1 teaspoon water

1. Preheat oven to 400° and grease or line nine cups in a muffin tin.
2. Place the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl. Whisk the flour mixture with a wire whisk to mix the ingredients and aerate the flour.
3. Put the sugar and zest into the work bowl of a food processor. (A small work bowl, if your processor has one, is ideal for this.) Pulse several times until the zest is very fine and combined with the sugar.
4. Add the orange sugar to the flour mixture and whisk to combine. Make a well in the flour.
5. In a small bowl combine the egg, milk, oil, and orange extract. Pour into the mixing bowl with the flour.
6. Stir together until the flour is just moistened. Be careful not to over mix. Small lumps of flour are acceptable.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, using about ¼ cup of batter per muffin.
8. Bake for 20 minutes.
9. While the muffins are baking, thin 2 teaspoons of honey with 1 teaspoon of water.
10. When muffins are removed from the oven, brush the tops with the honey-water mixture. Remove from pan and cool on a wire cooling rack.