Name: Anytime Orange Muffins
Yield: Makes 12
Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan; 2⅓ cups (292 g) all-purpose flour; 2 tsp. baking powder; 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt; 1 Tbsp. finely grated orange zest; 1¾ cups (350 g) sugar, plus more for sprinkling; 2 large eggs; 1 tsp. vanilla extract; ⅓ cup fresh orange juice; 1 cup half-and-half

Anytime Orange Muffins Photograph by Guang Xu

This orange muffin recipe is inspired by the cranberry-orange version sold at Costco, which Chef Shaina Loew-Banayan of Hudson, New York’s Cafe Mutton—one of our 10 Best New Restaurants of 2022—loved throughout their childhood. “Don’t be tempted to sprinkle demerara or some other fancy sugar on top of the muffins,” they implore. “That’s not the vibe.” Regular ol’ granulated sugar gives the tops a crackly surface that makes them deeply satisfying.

Using freshly squeezed orange juice is a must. And though they’ve nixed the dried cranberries so that the citrus flavor can shine even brighter, Loew-Banayan rounds out the wet ingredients with vanilla and half-and-half to give these muffins a Creamsicle mood. Unlike many restaurants’ baked goods, these are a snap to make at home. That said, be sure to use paper liners in your muffin tin as they give the batter something to cling to as they rise, and grease the top of the tin with butter so that the oversized muffin tops don’t stick.