Moro Blood Orange Muffins

Leslie and I have been devouring more than our fair share of Moro blood oranges this winter.  She eats them in sections like a 'real' orange, but I prefer mine juiced.  The flavor seems a lot more intense than regular oranges, and so the juice can be watered down quite a bit.  For a treat, I juice one orange into a glass of cold club soda.  Yum.

But the color?  Really horrific.

I mean, plenty of fruits and vegetables are red, purple or blue, but the inside of a Moro is 'blood-colored.'  No other word for it.  These photos make it look a bit pink, but it's really more like burgundy.  Like the bluish color blood sometimes has.  Dark.  Thick.  This orange has murder on its mind.  

Here is the orange being butchered cut into sections.  The juice does stain wood, cloth, etc.  Make mine an A negative, please.

Anyway, in keeping with our recent 'oddly colored foods' experiments, Leslie and I decided to use Moro juice in place of regular orange juice in one of our favorite recipes, Orange-Chocolate Chip muffins.  We hoped they'd be pink--perfect for Valentine's Day.  I had my suspicions about whether the muffins would really turn out pink or not.  Sure enough.  Below, you can see that the batter was only faintly pink.  Baking would surely render them completely colorless.  

But what we didn't expect at all was blue-ish green muffins.

That's the anthocyanins, of course.  Same stuff as in the purple potatoes we ate last week, and in blueberries, beets, etc.  Good for you, but rather unpredictable as a coloring, I guess!  It didn't act like we expected, but it makes sense.  Ever had your blueberry pancakes turn out green, when you mixed the berries into the batter too well?  I have, frequently.  (Yes, my family has to chew and swallow some pretty strange stuff sometimes.)

I must say, though, that these tasted unbelievably delicious!!!  The orange flavor was stronger than we've had in these muffins before, and I love that.  The orangier the better.  

Here is the recipe.  Sorry, I've had it so long I don't know where it came from.  I've changed it a lot, too. If the blue-tinge is not your style, just use regular oranges.  Like I intend to do again from now on.

1/2 Cup canola oil

1 C sugar

1 TB orange zest

2 eggs

1/2 sour cream or plain yogurt

1/2 Cup orange juice (2 large/ 3 small)

2 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 Cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Mix oil, sugar, and eggs until fluffy.  While still beating add the zest, sour cream and juice.  Mix the flour, baking powder and baking soda together and fold them lightly into the batter.  Sprinkle in the chocolate chips.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until done.  Makes 12.