Olive Oil Muffin

This muffin recipe is from Giada De Laurentiis who's crazy about balsamic vinegar. Basically she put it into every dish. When she mentioned about putting balsamic vinegar into these muffins. I was like "What? Is that for real?" The thing is I'm skeptical about using balsamic in non-salad dishes because, based on my experience, that strong flavor always overpowered the whole dish.

I decided to give it a try though. The simple way she showed to make the muffin, plus how she enjoyed the final product on TV......totally made me to give in.

And eventually, I was very satisfied with the result. Fruity olive oil flavour enhanced with orange zest and a little kick from balsamic....wonderful everyday muffin.

(makes 12 muffins)
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp milk
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup toasted almonds, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 12-cup muffin tin.

Blend together flour, baking powder and salt.

Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, eggs, zest until pale and fluffy, about 3 mins.

Beat in vinegar and milk. Gradually beat in olive oil.

Add the flour mixture, and stir just until blended.

Gently fold in almonds.

Scoop each muffin cup with almost full of batter, and bake until a toothpick comes out clean after inserting in the center of a muffin, about 20 mins.

Let cool for 10 mins and serve.