This week, I decided to do some experimenting.  Artificially flavored orange anything hasn’t really been my thing – ever.  I love eating oranges, but I still don’t like chocolate with orange flavoring, or orange-flavored cookies, etc.  It just tastes strange to me – maybe because everything I’ve tried has had too much orange flavor, or maybe it was those screwdrivers in college that did it.  Blech.  Years later, I still cringe.  So I don’t know what got in to me this weekend when I decided to bake with orange juice.  I wanted to use less butter, and use plain yogurt and OJ together to see if I could produce a moist muffin bread (meaning I wanted a muffin I could slice) without the heaps of fat.

 Now, Phong’s not so much of a sweets kind of guy, but this orange-blackberry muffin bread I made was just right for him.  I didn’t use too much sugar, so it’s not the stick-to-your-teeth kind of thing.  It has just a hint of orange flavor, from the fresh-squeezed orange juice and a little bit of orange zest.  I didn’t use too much because I was afraid I would freak out again.  I added some juicy blackberries because I the tartness heightens the flavor.  You have to top it off with the walnut glaze – it’s perfect with your morning coffee.  I made this during the weekend and it was all gone by this morning!

Orange-blackberry muffin bread

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup plain, lowfat yogurt

1/2 cup fresh-squeezed orange uice

1 tsp freshly grated orange zest (LOVE my microplane!)

1 whole egg + 1 egg white, lightly beaten

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup blackberries

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp (or more, if you want it runnier) skim milk

2 Tbsp chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F.  Spray a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with nonstick baking spray.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, yogurt, orange juice and zest, eggs, and vanilla extract until well-incorporated.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, stirring until all the ingredients are just combined and moistened (do not overstir).  Fold in the blackberries, and pour the muffin bread mixture into the loaf pan.

4. Bake for about 30-38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Allow to cool for about 20 minutes.  To make the glaze, simply stir the powdered sugar and milk until the glaze forms.  Add more milk if you want the glaze to be more runny.  Stir in the walnuts, and spoon the glaze over the muffin bread.