Orange Marmalade Muffin

I tried my hand at jam making a couple of weeks ago. It is my second stab at it. My first attempt happened years ago and, as I didn't exactly research and understand correctly how one would safely prepare and preserve fruits, the result was questionable. The jars (leftover store bought jam jars) sat in the cupboard for years before I finally threw them out. This time round, I read amply before I tackled my first project. I thought to start with strawberries, but the blood oranges looked better and was cheaper than the strawberries the day I went shopping. So I change course and bought a few pounds of blood oranges instead. I decided to use a recipe from a UK website. All was going well until I realized that the recipe called for 1.4kg (just about 3 lbs!!!) of sugar. I had 0.4 kg on the scale and it already looked like a ton of sugar. I decided to fudge and put in only 0.4 kg. I thought I would add more after I taste the bubbling orange mess in the pot. I didn't have to. It tasted really, really too sweet already. I was quite dismayed till I remembered that I had a little leftover cranberries from Thanksgivings last year. I popped them into the pan. That, I thought, should add some tartness. It sure did! I thought my resulting marmalade tasted quite good, but Dennis thought it was too tart for his liking (he would have liked the 1.4 kg of sugar). What to do with all these jars of slightly too tart marmalade? I thought I would make a batch of muffins with them. Those turned out just perfect for Dennis.

1/4 cup butter, softened (or melted)
1 cup sugar (or 3/4 cup, if the marmalade you have tastes sweet/very sweet to you)
2 eggs
1/4 cup yogurt (I used whole milk yogurt. Sour cream can be used too if you have it handy)
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup marmalade

1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cups almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

optional: A small handful of sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat until blended the first six ingredients. Stir in the marmalade. Combine and add the remaining dry ingredients until blended. Take care not to overmix.

I scoped the batter into a large muffin pan (six muffins), topped them off with some sliced almonds, and baked them in a 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven for about 18 minutes. You can always make smaller muffins (by using a 12 muffin pan) and by baking the muffins a shorter period of time. I would guess 13 to 14 minutes.