Cranberry Apple Pecan Tangerine Mini Muffins

These were for a gathering and I dusted them with cinnamon sugar before baking.

It's all about the leftovers, isn't it?

When I made this bread I had leftover Cranberry-Apple-Pecan mixture.  I froze it, since I am big on the "What do I do with this?  I dunno.  I'd better toss it in the freezer" method of dealing with things.

The paperwork for my taxes is not in my freezer.

Luckily, I married a wonderful man whose wonderful mom prepares taxes for a living, otherwise my tax paperwork would be in the freezer with random assorted bags of vegetables and fruits.  And Butch.

I enjoy the cranberry-citrus combination (and will soon be blessed with Band Fruit Fundraiser citrus, stay tuned for a recipe round up next month) so I decided to add some tangerine to these muffins.  I was making up a frightfully orange smoothie (Tangerine-Carrot-Banana) and since I'd gotten the blender out, I blended up a tangerine first for the muffin batter before continuing with the rest of the smoothie.  If you're not mixing up a smoothie, just chop up a tangerine and add it to the batter, or get fancy and remove the juicy flesh and toss the scaffolding* in the compost.  Alternatively, give the remnants to the composting pig as she'll eat almost anything (her late roommate would eat anything).
Don't give it to the worms--they don't care for citrus.

Remember this?

Cranberry Apple Pecan Tangerine Mini Muffins

1 cup oats (old fashioned, it's how I roll--ed, get it?)

1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk

1 cup cranberry-apple-pecan mixture, finely chopped

1 tangerine, peeled and seeded, chopped or blended

Combine in a large bowl and let soak on the counter for 1 hour  up to overnight.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a 24 cup mini muffin pan.  Mix in:

1/3 cup (80 ml) vegetable oil

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

Stir to combine.

Dump on top:

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt
cinnamon sugar, optional, to sprinkle across the top after baking.

Stir just until blended.  Scoop batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 12 minutes until tops lightly browned.
Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if desired. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then flip onto a cooling rack to completely cool.  Freezes well.  Makes around 32 mini muffins.

These were part of a giant batch to give away so I used papers for ease of clean up between panfuls.  Pans full. Whatev.

*What do you call the walls that separate the flesh of citrus fruit anyway?

This post is shared on the Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, What's Cookin' Wednesday, Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up, From the Farm Blog Hop