Orange jam muffins

I'm obsessed with muffins. They are so easy to make and so tasty, especially when you get your “once in year” Greek oranges and boil jam for the next season and use up the last jar of the previous season for muffins. It will not be the same with orange marmalade. Good, but not the same. 

Ingredients

30 g polenta
90 g almond meal
140 g wheat flour
pinch of sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
4 cardamom pods, seeds crushed
2 medium eggs
200 g orange jam, not marmalade
250 ml buttermilk or kefir
60 g light brown sugar
1 tbsp rosewater
130 g butter

for glazed oranges:
2 small oranges
150 ml water
100 g golden caster sugar

Prepare

Place sugar and water in a pot and boil. Add orange slices and boil for 20 minutes on medium heat. In the meantime, heat the oven to 150°; place parchment paper on a pan. Take out the slices, place in the pan in one layer and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Take out from the oven and let cool. Reserve the syrup. 

Preheat the oven to 200°. Line the muffin tins with muffin papers or brush generously with butter.

In a bowl, add polenta, almond meal, flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cardamom and mix. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, jam, buttermilk, rose water, sugar and butter, and mix. Gradually add the wet mix to the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated – don’t over mix. 

Fill the muffins 2/3 full. Place in the center of the oven and bake for 20-23 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. When done, remove and cool 5 minutes in the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack, pour over tiny bit of the syrup and place orange slice on the top. Cool completely or eat just a bit warm.