These ultra flavorful orange chai muffins are perfect for warming up in the fall breeze. Made with an almond and coconut flour blend, these orange chai muffins include fresh squeezed orange juice and zest and classic fall spices, leaving you feel all the basic fall feels.
The flavors of chai spice are perfect for the fall, but these muffins can be made all year round!
I love making muffins, in case you can't tell due to the amount of recipes I have on this site. These muffins are inspired by my coffee cake muffins and my sour cream chocolate chip muffins.
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What ingredients do I need for orange chai muffins?
For this particular muffin recipe, I used a blend of almond and coconut flour from my favorite brand Bob's Red Mill. I use their Paleo Baking Blend of flours, which taste incredibly light in my baked goods. Here's the remainder of the ingredients you'll need.
- Paleo flour: My favorite blend is from Bob's Red Mill which you can find here!
- Cinnamon
- Ground Cloves
- Ground Nutmeg
- Ground Cardmom
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Sugar: Cane sugar is what I suggest
- Butter: We are going to want butter to be room temperature
- Egg: Just one egg in this recipe
- Milk or half and half
- Orange zest and juice: The orange juice and zest is what's going to give this muffin the best citrus flavor!
See below for recipe card for specific information on quantities of the ingredients above.
How do I make this muffin recipe?
The technique for making these muffins is a little different than the other varieties of muffins I have on this site, as we are using butter for this recipe. Why? The butter gives these muffins incredible flavor and texture, and because I don't typically use butter for my muffins, I wanted to give it a try. The results are fantastic!
Preheat the oven to 375º and grease a muffin tin or insert liners. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. Crack in the egg and whisk to combine. With the mixer on, add in the half and half in an even stream and continue to mix until it's fully combined, then turn off the mixer.
Last, add in the orange juice and zest, then whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices). To the dry ingredients, pour in the wet and mix with a hand whisk. Only whisk until the batter comes together, then stop. Using a cookie scoop, scoop batter into the muffin tin and divide evenly, filling each muffin liner with ⅔ the batter. Bake 375° for 25m or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with minimal crumbs.
HINT: Let the batter sit on the counter for a few minutes to let the batter rest. This also allows for the baking soda and baking powder to marry and give the muffins a better dome and rise.
Muffin Swaps and Substitutions
These muffins are gluten free by default, but here are some other suggestions and swaps if you're interested in making these for your own dietary needs or for someone you're making them for:
- All Purpose Flour - you can use AP flour if you don't want to or need to make this gluten free, the measurement will be about the same (2 cups, or 256g)
- Vegan - use vegan butter and almond milk in replacement of the regular butter and cow's milk.
With either of these swaps and substitutions, be sure to read the importance of using a scale below to ensure you get the best tasting muffins each and every time.
Muffin Variations and Serving Suggestions
Get the most out of these delicious orange chai muffins with these serving suggestions and variations to this recipe:
- Chocolate - Throw in some chocolate chips to the muffin for added deliciousness.
- Cranberries - orange cranberry muffins are classic, so feel free to throw in some fresh cranberries or craisins!
- Serving - these muffins are excellent for a brunch board, on a platter for a family breakfast, or a grab-and-go breakfast treat on the commute to work (or even taking on an airplane for the flight, we've done this and it was perfect when my son got hungry for the 12th time on the plane).
Kitchen Equipment and Tools
The most important kitchen tool I highly recommend is a scale for anyone who likes to bake, even if not professionally. The reason for the scale is because one cup for me may not be one cup for you. There's lot of methods out there for measuring dry, or even wet, ingredients, but I am here to tell you having a scale is a game changer. I like my Zwilling digital scale, (affiliate link) but you can find many more on Amazon, Sur La Table, or even Target.
If you are not using a scale:
- Use measuring cups but using the scoop and level method
- Scoop flour into a measuring cup until it fills the entire cup, the level it off by scraping the excess with a butter knife back into the bag of flour or whatever contain you keep your flour in.
Other common kitchen tools include:
- Muffin tin
- Muffin liners
- Cookie scoop
- Mixing bowls
- Whisk
Muffin Storage
These muffins, like all of my other muffin recipes, are freezer friendly (yay!) and are great to keep out on the counter for up to 5 days. You can absolutely put the muffins in the fridge as well, but they may dry out. I tend to buy those really large Rubbermaid containers which hold an entire batch of muffins, place on the counter, and grab one for breakfast with my coffee. Literal morning routine perfection.
PRO TIP:
Don't overmix the batter. When you're whisking, stop just when the flour is completely incorporated into the wet ingredients. Overmixing causes the muffins to get chewy, tough, and flavorless. I've learned on numerous occasions that overmixing is a no-no, so now I'm sharing my experiences with you.
Hungry for More?
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Orange Chai Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin tin
- 12 Muffin liners
- Cookie scoop
- 1 Scale this helps tremendously when measuring dry and wet ingredients
Ingredients
- 250 grams Paleo Baking Flour this equates to just about 2 cups
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon ground cardmom
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375º and grease a muffin tin or insert liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.
- Crack in the egg and whisk to combine.
- With the mixer on, add in the half and half in an even stream and continue to mix until it's fully combined, then turn off the mixer.
- Last, add in the orange juice and zest, then whisk to combine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices).
- To the dry ingredients, pour in the wet and mix with a hand whisk. Only whisk until the batter comes together, then stop.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop batter into the muffin tin and divide evenly, filling each muffin liner with ⅔ the batter.
- Bake 375° for 25m or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with minimal crumbs.
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