Citrus-Currant Sunshine Muffins

What up everyone! Today is a pretty exciting day...today it is my turn to host the Tuesdays with Dorie group! Many of you already know me and read my blog, but if you are just stopping by Bella Baker for the first time, here's a little about me:

My three favorite foods are lobster, pizza and chocolate chip cookies, and if I was forced to I could absolutely exist on those three foods for a long, long time.

I love the color pink.

I love to bake and create beautiful and delicious desserts, but I love more than anything seeing other people enjoy the desserts I make.

I love my boyfriend and could spend every second of every day with him.

I love to sing and dance, though I am not particularly good at either.

I love my pink kitchenaid mix master.

I love Hoda Kotb and Ellen DeGeneris.

I love elephants and consider them a good luck charm. I dream of giving one a big hug one day.

I love to exercise. It gives me lots of energy and makes me feel strong.

Lately I have been quite addicted to smoothies. I've tried all sorts of combinations...banana-pineapple-blueberry-mango is amazing.

I love any movie that Kevin James is in.

I love living in Florida, even more than I had ever expected.

I love beaches and palm trees and blue, sunny skies.

I love wearing flip flops year-round.

I love having fresh fruit year-round.

I love sunglasses.

I love the Miami Heat.

I love SUNSHINE.

Which brings me to these Citrus-Currant Sunshine Muffins. Bright and sunshiney, filled with lots of orange and lemon, these are Florida in muffin form. They were so easy to make, and so wonderful to enjoy. These little muffins are packed with flavor. I can't say enough great things about them, and I hope you all enjoyed them as much as I did!

I want to give a very big thank you to Laurie for starting this group and developing it into something incredible. I want to give another big thank you to Dorie for inspiring this group, and inspiring me personally every single day. And I want to give a final thank you to all of you out there reading this. And to thank you all I am offering an awesome giveaway!! Courtesy of CSN, I am giving away a $40 gift certificate, which you can use for anything on any of their sites, whether it be for bakeware or pendant lighting. They've got in all, and now you can too! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to enter!

Citrus-Currant Sunshine Muffins

Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1/2 cup sugar

Grated zest of 1 orange

2 cups AP flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup fresh orange juice

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs

3/4 cup moist, plump dried currants

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular sized muffin tin or fit the molds with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange is strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the orange and lemon juices, lemon extract, melted butter and eggs. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough - a few lumps are better than overmixing the batter. Fold in the currants. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.