Sunshine Orange Muffins from The Best of Bridge

Pretty orange-poppyseed muffins from Canada's famous Best of Bridge cookbook series, barely sweet, sweetened mostly with a whole orange (skin and all!) and one of my favorite pantry ingredients for a flavor boost, frozen orange juice concentrate.

~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

COMPLIMENTS!

• "I love the Sunshine muffins as well ..." ~ raidergirl3

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Best of Bridge: A (Canadian) Family Tradition

Canadian readers, you know Best of Bridge cookbooks, eh? You grew up with them too, eh? Your moms and aunts and cousins cooked with them, for weeknight suppers but most especially for parties, eh? (Sorry, I’ll quit with the eh’s.)

After twenty-two years and six cookbooks, the Best of Bridge is gearing up for a new generation of cooks – with two collections of favorite recipes, “The Best of the Best” and “The REST of the Best” of the Best of Bridge. Confusing, I know, that’s a lot of bests. If a double-negative makes a positive, does a triple best make a surefire hit? Chances are!

The morning after the cookbooks hit my mailbox, I sat down with a cup of tea (real Red Rose, thank you …) but got no further than breakfast before draining my teacup (Royal Albert, thank you …) and turning on the oven.

Forty-five minutes later, we broke open warm muffins, barely sweet, extra-tender and full of orange essence. It would be easy to embellish these muffins – with orange zest added with the flour, say, or chopped golden raisins or toasted pecans or even, alors, mini chocolate chips. Me, I loved them plain with a little marmalade.

Once again, Best of Bridge, you are the best.

Six Degrees of Separation

My Canadian family has been swapping Best of Bridge recipes as long as I can remember.

But my own small Best of Bridge claim to fame comes from my American family. My dear Auntie Karen went to school with Linda Barber Jacobson (now deceased), one of the eight women who played bridge together in the 1970s and collected their recipes into one edition after another of the Best of Bridge cookbooks, a Canadian culinary institution. Last month Auntie Karen wrote, “There were four of us living in a room the size of a public phone booth. Two from Canada and two of us from the States. Wonderful memories."

But there's more! In 2015, Best of Bridge passed the torch spatula to a new generation of Canadian authors, including one of my very favorite food bloggers, Julie van Rosendaal of the Calgary-based food blog Dinner with Julie.

What Is Canadian Cuisine? What Are "Canadian" Cookbooks?

For me, the answer is easy. My Canadian recipes are family recipes, the ones that come from my mom's side of the family. Are they "Canadian" in the way that "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet" are American? Not really.

Awhile back, I scoured the cookbook sections in both Toronto and Winnipeg bookstores but found nothing that I felt really represented Canada well. Perhaps my search is a fool's game, is there one definitive "American" cookbook either? Of course not. I did find the lovely Across the Table: An Indulgent Look at Food in Canada by Cynthia Wine (what a great name for a food writer!) with gorgeous original watercolours by Canadian artist Mary Pratt.

So Canadian Readers, is there a cookbook you think of as "Canadian"? one you might gift to a visitor from another country, say? or one you think somehow wraps its arms around the vast melting pot that is Canada?

UPDATE Many thanks to the many readers who responded in the comments, I so appreciate your sharing your favorite Canadian cookbooks here!

BUT THERE'S MORE! I follow so, so many Canadian food blogs and it's wonderful to see the appearance of a "Canadian" food sensibility. It's showing up in cookbooks too, see this 2017 list of four new Canadian cookboks from Simple Bites. I'm off to check 'em out!

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SUNSHINE-ORANGE MUFFINS

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 45 minutes but honestly, best after a few hours
Makes 12 regular-size muffins

• 1 whole orange, skin left on, ends trimmed, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup (135g) frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup (50g) sugar
• 1/4 cup (47g) vegetable oil

• 1 cup flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring or 125g
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour, fluffed to aerate or 62g
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, optional but pretty

Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Spray a muffin tin or line cups with paper or (my favorite) silicone muffin cups.

Place the chopped orange, OJ concentrate, egg, sugar and oil in a blender and whiz away until smooth and airy, about a minute.

Now – decide if you want to save a dish and continue mixing in the blender or go easy on yourself and move to a mixing bowl. Me, I’d move to the mixing bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix just until blended.

Using two spoons, one to scoop and one to scrape, fill muffin tins evenly. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool. Serve with butter and jam or plain. The flavors develop over a couple of hours and the muffins stay moist and tender for a good two days.

ALANNA’s TIPS Based on a pantry inventory of something like a dozen jars, seems to be I like buying jams and preserves more than eating them. But call me hooked on something called “Scandinavian Delights” Orange Danish Spread from Elki Corporation. For anyone keen on an online order, they are sold on Elki’s website but for a depressing $7.50 a jar plus shipping no doubt. But I found a few jars of the marmalade-like preserves (except WAY less sweet) at Marshall’s for $3.50 each and hope to snag a few more next visit. The poppy seeds are my addition, I love how they look. Plus, y'know, seeds ...

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Muffin: 138 Calories; 4g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 17mg Cholesterol; 345mg Sodium; 22g Carb; 1g Fiber; 10g Sugar; 3g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 3 & PointsPlus 4 & SmartPoints 5 & Freestyle 4 This recipe has been "Alanna-sized" with reductions in processed sugar and flour and increases in natural sugars, flavor and whole-grains.

Adapted from The Best of the Best from the Best of Bridge Cookbooks. This and The Rest of the Best seem to be new releases of the 2004 editions of these cookbooks. Many thanks for a complimentary copies from the publisher, Robert Rose. DISCLOSURE My Disclosure Promise

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Seasonal Cooking: This Same Week, Across the Years

Tender Pork Tenderloin Honey Mustard Chicken Moroccan Chicken Sole with Mushrooms & Onions Mango Chicken Salad Mango Lassi Red Quinoa Salad Your Way Mojito Strawberries Sunshine Orange Muffins Upside-Down Rhubarb Cheesecake

This Week, Elsewhere

Tzatziki from Olympia Kebob House & Taverna
My Column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Savory Muffins with Sweet Potato & Feta
A Veggie Venture, my food blog about vegetables

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More Morning Muffin Recipes

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~ more muffin recipes ~

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More Canadian Recipes

(hover with a mouse for a description; otherwise click a photo to view the recipe)

~ more Canadian recipes ~

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Shop Your Pantry First

(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

~ orange ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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