Orange & Cardamom Scented Rice Muffins
Why I Love This Recipe
Great use for left over rice. When I cook rice, I always throw in whole wheat berries. My recipe below was made with a bend of 2 parts rice to 1 part whole wheat berries leftover from the previous day.
This recipe is best if using a mortar and pestle to crush or grind the spices, lemon peels, etc., prior to adding to batter. It's okay to use pre-ground, but you can always give it a quick twist under the pestle to release even more flavor. I like to save the outer peel from lemon, letting it dry on a dish in the cupboard and then grinding it with the mortar and pestle before adding to recipes. The cardamom in this recipe was ground in my mortar and pestle from whole inner seeds.
The orange oil (made from orange peel) was at my better local grocery store--virgin coconut oil can be found at either a better local grocer (or possibly a Whole Foods store), at health food stores, or at The Vitamin Shoppe. Don't confuse this wonderful ingredient with hydrogenated coconut oil.
Ingredients You'll Need
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cardamon (freshly ground)
1/2 tsp lemon peel, dried and ground
1/2 tsp salt (I use fleur de sel)
1 cup leftover, cooked, cooled rice (or rice blend)
2 eggs
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil (or butter)
2/3 cup applesauce (natural, no sugar or sweeteners added)
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/4 to 3/4 cup milk (or rice milk or water) based on thickness of batter
1 tsp pure orange oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
Directions
Preheat oven to 350
Mix dry ingredients, add wet ingredients except milk, incorporate. Add milk based on stiffness of batter--add more if batter if more like cookie dough texture, less if batter is like pancake dough. You want something in between. Drop by 1/2 cup measure into a prepared muffin tin.
Bake 30 minutes or until done (test with knife or toothpick--check at 25 minutes.) The amount of moisture in the leftover rice will influence the cooking time.
