Pecan Muffins in Blood Orange Syrup

Submitted by mandz

"These muffins are sweet, nutty and delicious!! They are an unashamedly decadent dessert that you don't need a special occasion to enjoy."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 12 muffins
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• muffins

• 5 large eggs, separated (or 6 small eggs)
• 1 tablespoon white sugar (divided, see directions)
• 0.22 lb raw pecans (or pistachio)
• 0.11 lb all-purpose flour
• 0.11 lb fine semolina flour
• 1⁄2 blood orange, zest of

• syrup

• 1 blood orange, zest of
• 1 cup blood orange juice, pulp-free unsweetened
• 1 cup unsweetened orange juice, pulp-free
• 0.94 lb white sugar

• garnish

• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 1⁄3 cup thickened cream (for whipping)

directions

1. Preheat fan-forced oven to 170 degrees centigrade. Grease a muffin tray with 12 holes.
2. Muffins;.
3. Whisk egg whites and a pinch of the white sugar with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
4. In a separate bowl, add zest of 1/2 blood orange and remainder of the sugar to the egg yolks. Whisk with an electric mixer till the yolks turn a pale yellow colour.
5. Chop pecans in a food processor until coarsely chopped.
6. Fold pecans, flour and semolina flour into egg whites. Fold yolk mixture in gently to combine. Fold gently to keep fluffiness in mixture.
7. Spoon mixture evenly into muffin tray and cook in preheated oven for 18 minutes.

8. Syrup:

9. Add zest of 1 blood orange, the white sugar, orange and blood orange juices to a heavy based saucepan.
10. Cook on high heat, stir to dissolve sugar. Cook until it comes to a boil.
11. Turn heat to low and simmer gently until it thickens slightly (about 8 minutes). Set aside.

12. Garnish:

13. Whip cream until stiff. Fold honey through the cream.
14. Make 12 blood orange segments by cutting each orange into 6 pieces and remove the skin.

15. Serving:

16. Take muffins out of oven and run a small spatula around each muffin to ensure they are not stuck to the pan.
17. While syrup and muffins are still hot, pour 2 small ladles of syrup over each muffin while they are still in the muffin tray, reserving 125ml for serving.
18. Serve one muffin with a tbsp of the whipped cream and honey mixture and a blood orange segment. Drizzle with 1 tbsp reserved syrup.

Reviews

[Maito]

I am rounding this up from 3.5 stars. We really liked the blood orange syrup and all the pecans. The directions were a little more complicated than your average muffin recipe though. I added a pinch of salt to the muffins. I also halved the amount of syrup (then used only 75% of the sugar), and it was still nicely sweet. I served these with fat free whipped cream. DH thought the texture of these was similar to a scone. Very creative, good luck in the contest!