Savouring Stella: Orange Anise Muffins

Orange and anise, why haven't I put you together before? You're a match made in heaven! Inspired by Caitlin over at Roost, who made these Toasted Fennel Orange Morning Cakes, I knew I wanted to play with this. I love fennel, but as I was rummaging through our extensive cupboard of spices in the retreat I could not for the life of me find fennel!

"I know it's here somewhere, we just had a huge jar of it!" I kept telling Manuel as I got my elbows deeper and deeper into various spices.

Fennel-less and smelling of every union territory in India, I gave up, coming to peace with the fact that I would simply have to wait to try this recipe.
"What if you use anise seed?", Manuel asked. I smelled the jar of anise seed. Sweeter than fennel, a more subtle liquorice flavour.
"I don't know..", I replied, pretty dead set on fennel. "...I'll give it a try."

The next morning in the kitchen, Manuel actually found our jar of fennel seed. I even took home enough for the recipe. Then at the last minute when I was beginning to toast the fennel, I decided to put it back in lieu of anise seed. Good call. The result was a moist, lightly sweet, flowery rich tasting batch of muffins. Thank you Manuel!

Almond flour as a base creates a deeply flavorful, moist, gluten-free muffin. They contain no additional fat, only that from the almond flour and whole milk yogurt, so they still remain moist and decadent, but with a lighter quality, and full of flavor. They are sweetened with honey, making them completely free of refined sugars. The anise seeds are toasted and then finely chopped to scatter a subtle sweet very mild liquorice flavor that permeates the batter. Orange juice and zest keeps things light, floral, and refreshing as ever. I intended for these to be an afternoon treat with tea, but they could easily be baked and frozen, taken out for guests or breakfast on the road.

Orange Anise Muffins makes 12

3 cups fine ground almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.5 Tbsp whole anise seed
3 farm fresh eggs
1/4 cup whole milk yogurt or full fat greek yogurt
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
zest and juice of 1 small orange (I ended up with 1/3 cup orange juice)

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 F/ 175 C, lightly grease or line your muffin tins.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat and toast anise seed until they become fragrant, about two minutes. Chop them finely and set aside

Add almond flour, sea salt, baking soda, and anise seeds to a large bowl, whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, yogurt, honey, vanilla, orange zest and juice, mix well. Fold into dry ingredients.

Pour batter into greased/lines tins, filling three quarters of the way. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Watch them carefully in the last 3 minutes, almond flour goes from almost done to burnt in moments, so resist the urge to walk away.

Now comes the hard part, let them rest for 10 minutes before digging in. The batter is moist, so these will crumble if you jump the gun on taking them out. I know this from experience.