Easy Dried Fruit Muffins

After the holidays, most of us will have some dried fruit remaining. Turning the dried fruit into wonderful muffins will make us very happy. A muffin is like a little cupcake, and there are endless choices of filling it with fresh and dried fruit and/or nuts. Most of the time, I like to cut back the on the fat content in these recipes and just make healthy muffins. Today, is New Year’s Day so, let’s celebrate a new day with these muffins. Throughout the year, we will all usually worry about our weight, money matters, or other troubles in life, so we should just let ourselves enjoy this one day worry free.

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp.baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin spice
1/2 cup superfine sugar
Dried fruit:
1 ½ cups dried fruit, roughly chopped
1/4 cup orange juice 
Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup milk (skim or whole)
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Line a 12 muffin tin with muffin paper liners and set aside.

Soak the dried fruit with orange juice for 1 hour.

Sift all the dry ingredients except the superfine sugar in a mixing bowl and then add the sugar. Mix well and make a well in the center.

In another bowl, add all the wet ingredients and use a handheld mixer to beat all the ingredients together.

Pour the beaten liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add the soaked dried fruit into the mixture. Stir gently just until combined (do not overmix).

Scoop the batter 2/3 full into the muffin tin liners and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

 Remove muffin tin from oven and then allow muffin tin to cool before serving muffins.