What a mouthful! Orange Cardamom Chai Muffins – with a blueberry and cranberry filling, chai spice, and a delicious black tea taste. These addicting muffins are topped with nutmeg and brown sugar, and they’ll have you begging for more!
This recipe came about when I was experimenting with muffin recipes to create the most delicious Earl Grey muffins. While, I haven’t succeeded yet, I found adding orange zest and cardamom made absolutely the most delicious tea muffins. This is an original recipe that’s been received well by my partner’s entire extended family.
My Special Chai Mix!
This recipe contains 1/2 teaspoon of special chai mix, or chai patti, that I use to make non-dairy chai. I’ll share the recipe eventually, but for now, you can make your own chai patti with these ingredients and a grinder.
- 1/4 cup green cardamom pods
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon or 3 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tablespoons ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
You can find cardamom pods at your local health & organic store, or any Asian & Indian market. If you can’t get ahold of it, two tablespoons of ground cardamom will also suffice.
Additional Directions
This recipe is an oil-based mix, with tea-flavored milk and canola oil. No eggs are needed for these muffins. After the adding the sugar-oil mix and heated milk to the dry ingredients, you should have a sticky, gluey batter.
You should have enough batter to fill the tins like so, and don’t worry if they’re not even – they will spread out nicely in the oven. Just add the topping and bake at 395 F for 18-20 minutes. Once you can slide in a skewer with it coming out clean, you’re ready!
Here’s how to make my fragrant and delicious Orange Cardamom Chai Muffins!
Orange Cardamom Chai Blueberry & Cranberry Muffins
Equipment
- 2 bowls
- silicon mixing spatula
- grater/zester
- saucepan
- whisk
- 12-count muffin baking tin
- muffin holders
Ingredients
Orange Cardamom Chai Muffins
- ¾ cup milk
- 2 black tea bags
- ½ teaspoon chai spice mix or ¼ tsp ground cardamom, ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup canola oil
- ¾ cups sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp orange zest
- ½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries
- ½ cup dried cranberries
Almond, Brown Sugar & Honey Crumble Topping
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp almonds
- ½ tbsp melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp honey
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 395°F degrees and line your muffin tins with liners. If you don't have liners, make sure to grease the tins well.
- Pour ¾ cups of milk into a small saucepan and heat it over medium heat. Once simmering, add in 2 black tea bags. Cook for 5 minutes, and then take sauce pan off heat. Leave teabags in for an additional 5 minutes and discard.
- While the tea cooks, prepare your dry ingredients. Add your flour and baking powder to a medium mixing bowl.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together your canola oil and white sugar. Add vanilla extract and lemon juice. Zest your oranges and lemons in a separate container and add ½ a teaspoon of each into the wet ingredients.
- Pour your wet ingredients into the medium mixing bowl. With a silicon spatula, mix the dry and wet ingredients together. Take the tea mixture and measure ¾ cups into the bowl. Some of it may have evaporated, so substitute any that is gone with fresh milk. Mix well, and then fold in your blueberries and cranberries together carefully.
- Pour even amounts into your 12-count muffin tin.
- Now, combine your almonds, brown sugar, coconut oil, nutmeg, and almonds in a food processor. It should crumble together. Sprinkle an even amount over the tops of your muffins. You may have some left over.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Cool for 5 minutes and enjoy!
Notes
- 1/4 cup green cardamom pods
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon or 3 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tablespoons ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
These muffins are spoil-your-diet delicious, but in case you and your folks can’t finish it in time, these will keep for a week easily refrigerated, or 1-2 days at room temperature. They taste best after they’ve cooled to room temperature from baking, but they’re still delicious right out of the fridge.
What do you think? If you enjoyed these, don’t forget to try my amazing Lavender Blueberry Muffins as well! I can’t wait to experiment with more recipes, and finally make that perfect Earl Grey muffin recipe as well.
See you all next time! And if you’re interested in seeing me bake live, don’t forget to check out the Pride version of Hennessy’s Great Baking Show this Sunday at Media Meltdown, 1pm on June 27th.
They were super good! I loved the sweet taste from the cranberry and the spices were not over powering just the perfect amount!
thank you so much for this kind feedback, Lupita! can’t wait to bake for family events again soon!
These were such a huge hit at our Father’s Day get together! So much flavor in such a small bite. They do not disappoint!
Super kind feedback coming from a pro baker like you. <3 thank you so much for the love!
Big flavors!
Thank you Bertha! ^_^
I love cooking with tea, this is so interesting! A must try
yes, absolutely – thank you! I love adding tea flavors to everything so more to come soon!