Orange Scuffins
Prep this batter before bed, then bake fresh muffins in the morning!
I hesitated sharing this recipe because have you ever seen such a dowdy looking muffin in your life? These are a good example that not every meal has to be a wow moment. Sometimes I just want to eat something homemade with little fuss & easy clean up. Throw in a make ahead element, and it’s a win-win-win.
I use my All-Purpose Baking Mix, a recipe from Homemade with Love, which turns 8 years old in March, to make these muffins, which means no need for measuring a lot of separate ingredients. The recipe for my baking mix can also be found here. There’s another time-saving tip that will surely push this muffin to the top of your baking list. The batter can be made in advance, the night before, and baked when you wake up in the morning. I got the idea to try this after listening to Cheryl Day on The Splendid Table recently. She mentioned preparing muffin batter at her bakery the night before, and it kinda blew my mind.
I’m a believer in letting batter rest a little bit before baking so the dry ingredients can really soak up the wet ingredients, but had never thought about actually letting a baking powder-based batter sit overnight. It makes sense for yeasted batters since they need that time for the yeast to activate but baking powder-based recipes are the key leavener in quick breads for a reason—we associate baking powder with baking straight away.
The next morning, I decided to test this theory for myself. I used the Lemon Blueberry Muffin recipe from Homemade with Love as the base, omitting the blueberries, and swapping in orange zest for the lemon. I was also very close to adding poppy seeds or chocolate chips. Just as I was about to spill some mini chips into the batter, my mind wandered back to the little muffins Michael and I would buy for the kids at Mazzola Bakery a few blocks from our apartment in Brooklyn.
We’d sit on the bench outside the bakery, drinking coffee and eating muffins while the kids bounced around playing. One of their favorites was a simple orange-flavored muffin, and so I decided to keep this muffin’s flavor the same. There’s tips for adding some pizzazz to your muffins in the notes below the recipe, if you like.
The batter comes together really quickly if you already have some of my All-Purpose Baking Mix prepared (and if you don’t, then consider this your reminder to mix up a batch). All you need from there are two bowls, one for the wet ingredients and another for the dry, so you won’t be left with a sink full of dishes to wash. I used half the batter to bake six muffins straight away early in the morning. I wanted a test batch to compare to the muffins baked from the rested batter, plus I needed something to go with my morning coffee.
I then went about my business, working the rest of the day while the batter sat in the fridge, covered with a plate. Just before getting ready to cook dinner that evening, I baked up the rest of the batter, and was excited to see both bakes yielded the same results. I’m curious to continue playing with this idea of making batters in advance. How much longer can the batter be held in the fridge without the leavener losing its rising power? Can I do this with other batters like cupcakes and coffee cakes? Only time and more experimentation will tell.
Oh, you’re probably wondering why I called these scuffins, yes? Well, Day mentioned the biscones she makes at her bakery which are a hybrid biscuit and scone. It got me thinking about the method I’ve been using to make these muffins for the last 12 years. Preparing the batter starts out with a method similar to making scones or biscuits, by quickly rubbing cold butter into the flour mixture, so I thought I’d give a playful nod to that by mashing up scone and muffin in the title.
Be well, and remember to be kind. —xo, j.