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Brown butter buttermilk Pomegranate Orange Muffins, full of fresh pomegranate seeds and orange zest, are super moist, full of flavor, and made from scratch.
Baking with pomegranates:
I’ve been buying pomegranates in bulk at Costco lately. Why? Oh, well, there are so many reasons and you know I want to tell you them all.
- First of all, the pomegranates I get a Costco are HUGE. Massive. If I’m going to take the time to remove the pomegranate seeds, or arils if you will, from a pomegranate, it better be worth my time.
- Second, they last awhile, which is good because when I get lazy, which is often these days, I don’t always feel like breaking up a new one.
- Third, pomegranates are a super food. They have all sorts of good things.
Now, wrap them in a brown butter buttermilk muffin and some may argue that they’re not exactly healthy anymore… but they’re healthier than if you had used chocolate chips, right? I can rationalize anything.
The best buttermilk muffin base.
I used the same base that I use for my blueberry muffins. I feel like I have perfected the recipe and will never use anything else.
The muffin base is easy to make. It’s a standard baking recipe where the dry and wet ingredients are combined separately, then added together, and stirred by hand.
The orange zest and pomegranate arils only added to the flavor of these homemade buttermilk muffins. They added a sweet flavor, a slightly tart taste, and a nice crunch from the seeds.
I ended up having to keep these muffins under lock and key so that my kids wouldn’t inhale all of them in one sitting!
If you love homemade muffin recipes like this, you’ll also want to try my Black Tea Vanilla Muffins or my Zucchini Blueberry Muffins.
Check out how I remove the seeds from pomegranates in the video below!
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs slightly beaten
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups pomegranate arils
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease muffin tins with butter.
- In a large bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.
- In a medium sized pan over medium heat, melt the 8 tablespoons unsalted butter. Swirl occasionally to ensure butter is cooking evenly. As the butter melts, it will begin to foam and the color will get darker. Continually scrape bottom of pan to release any brown specs. Once you start smelling the nutty aroma, remove browned butter from heat and allow to cool. Take care not to burn.
- In a separate bowl, whisk 2 eggs, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 tablespoon orange zest, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and mostly cooled browned butter together. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients. Fold together and do not over mix. Fold in the 2 cups pomegranate arils.
- Spoon batter into greased muffin tins and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20-30 minutes (mine took longer because I used a stone muffin pan). Test by inserting cake tester into center of muffin and ensure batter is fully cooked. When done cooking, immediately remove from muffin tins and allow to cool on cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This post was originally created in January 2016 and has been updated for your reading pleasure.
I tweaked the recipe slightly by adding a little extra vanilla and the zest of a large orange. They are delicious. I did cook the pomegranate seeds for about 30 minutes they became very tender They still have a crunch in the muffins.
I loved these muffins. I made them small, so I got 24 muffins from the recipe. Half the calories, and turned out great.
Hey. I wanna know about the seeds. Won’t they bother us when we eat the muffins? Or they get cooked and become softer? Coz my pomegranate seeds are hard.
I remember them getting really soft when cooked and they didn’t bother me. Still a bit of crunch, but nothing like eating them raw.
Very good muffin. My husband loved them.
I’m giving these 5 our of 5 because normally I mess up recipes and these muffins came out great! I didn’t have buttermilk so I used almond milk and they turned out fine. Probably not a textbook muffin but still delicious. I had never browned butter before (still not sure if I did) so thank you for that description. I added sugar to the top of mine!
Very disappointed in this recipe. The orange zest makes the batter very bulky and once I mixed it, it was as thick as cookie dough. I had to add milk just to get it to look like actual muffin batter. I think orange juice might be a better addition rather than the zest. I won’t make this again.
I really like the base muffin. I didn’t have enough pomegranates so I added some blueberries. Really yummy!
these are the best! my hubby’s fav
What a great way to start my day! Looking forward to baking these tomorrow for a night Saturday morning; looks too good to pass up!
Delicious! I love this new variation on orange muffins! Cranberries are usually the star. It’s so fun to have something different for once! And they add a nice crunch to the wonderfully soft muffins. Great texture combination!
Literally the best muffins ever! Love the pomegranate with the orange! So good!