For the past couple of years, in the fall, I’ve been making lovely little Coronation-Vin Santo grape cakes for dessert. And while doing a freezer tidy-up recently, I found a small bag of the grapes tucked away. Hmmm…well I don’t have enough to make the cakes but maybe I could turn them into muffins and I even had a bit of Vin Santo in the fridge! I think these muffins might be darned good! And so they are!
Makes 12 Muffins
1 ½ cups unbleached flour
½ cup wholewheat flour
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cardamom
½ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup orange juice (or substitute 1-2 Tbsp. Vin Santo for some of the juice)
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. finely grated orange peel
1 ½ cups whole small dark, seedless grapes
Topping:
Approximately 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
Make the muffins:
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Line a muffin pan with paper muffin liners (I’ve found the parchment ones work 100% better than the old paper liners I used before). Nothing of the muffin gets stuck to the paper liners once you peel them off.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom.
In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, orange juice, Vin Santo (if using), orange peel, oil and eggs; pour over flour mixture. Fold ingredients together but not completely; there still should be flour not incorporated into the dough; add the grapes, complete folding until ingredients are just combined, being careful not to over mix.
Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups (I find an ice-cream scoop does a great job here).
Sprinkle approximately 1 tsp. of the sugar over each muffin.
Bake in centre of the oven for 25 – 30 minutes, or until tops are firm to the touch.
