The Muffin Queen is BACK to re-share a recipe that’s like a ray of sunshine to celebrate spring. If you know me you know I’m obsessed with all things orange. And really just adding citrus to baked goods because it’s too dang good.
These bakery-style orange muffins are moist (sorry not sorry), perfectly sweet, easy to make, and have those beautiful tall tops that make them look store bought. I love to top them with coarse sugar and sliced almonds for extra crunch, but you do you!
I included plenty of tips (yes, they can be made gluten free) and even some more flavor combinations you can add to really make them your own. They’re the perfect way to use up fresh citrus and make such a great snack or brunch treat. Enjoy!
Everything you’ll need to make the best orange muffins
There are a few specific ingredients that give these easy orange muffins the best flavor and texture. Here’s everything you’ll need:
- Flour: we’re using a mix of all purpose flour and almond flour to give the muffins the perfect fluffy texture.
- Baking staples: you’ll need both baking powder and baking soda plus some salt.
- Sugar: we’re sweetening these muffins with organic cane sugar to give them a true bakery-style flavor. You can also use regular granulated sugar, or for an unrefined sweetener version, you can use coconut sugar. I like to sprinkle sugar on top of the muffins, too, for a pretty look.
- Eggs: you’ll need 2 eggs to help the muffins bake up properly.
- Orange: fresh orange juice and lots of orange zest give these muffins a beautiful, bright flavor.
- Yogurt: feel free to use vanilla or plain Greek yogurt for moisture.
- Extracts: both vanilla extract and almond extract bring out the delicious sweetness of the muffins. Learn how to make your own vanilla here!
- Butter: a little butter adds the perfect touch of extra moisture to make these muffins irresistible.
Can I make these orange muffins gluten free or dairy free?
Yes! This orange muffin recipe can easily be adapted to be gluten free or dairy free.
- To make gluten free: simply use a 1:1 gluten-free all purpose flour in place of the regular flour.
- To make dairy free: feel free to use your favorite dairy free yogurt, and swap the butter for olive oil or avocado oil.
Add a little crunch
I love sprinkling sliced almonds on these muffins before baking for added crunch! They’re not a necessity but if you have them they are fantastic!
Try these amazing flavor combos
- Orange chocolate chip muffins: stir 1/2 cup of mini or regular chocolate chips into the batter and add a few on top of each muffin before baking to make them extra pretty.
- Cranberry orange muffins: fold 1 heaping cup of fresh cranberries into the batter.
Tips for making the best orange muffins
- Bake them at a higher temp. Yes, this recipe calls for the muffins to be baked at 400 degrees F instead of the usual 350! The higher temperature is what gives the muffins that tall, bakery-style look.
- Don’t overmix the batter. Mix the dry ingredients into your wet ingredients until just combined. If you overmix the batter your orange muffins may turn out dense and almost rubbery, which we don’t want.
- Use muffin liners & spray. I recommend spraying your muffin liners with a bit of cooking spray to prevent any sticking.
Our fav tools for baking muffins
Don’t forget to check out all of our favorite kitchen essentials.
How to store and freeze orange muffins
- Store: store these orange muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, then I recommend storing them in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- To freeze: store muffins in reusable silicone bags and freeze. When ready to serve, reheat for 30-45 seconds in the microwave or thaw at room temperature.
More muffin recipes
- The Best Bakery Style Blueberry Muffins You’ll Ever Eat
- Brown Butter Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Pecan Streusel
- Healthy Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Brown Butter Orange Pumpkin Muffins with Orange Glaze
- Healthy Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Blueberry Glaze
Get all of my muffin recipes here!
I hope you love these bakery-style orange muffins! If you make them be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked them. Enjoy, xo!
Bakery-Style Orange Muffins
Ingredients
- Dry ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cup (210g) all purpose flour (or gluten free 1:1 all purpose flour)
- ½ cup (56g) blanched fine almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Wet ingredients:
- Zest from 2 large oranges
- 1 cup (200g) organic cane sugar (or granulated sugar is fine!)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ½ cup (100g) freshly squeezed orange juice (from about 2 large oranges)
- ⅓ cup (75g) vanilla or plain whole-milk or 2% Greek yogurt*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ cup (1 stick, 113g) salted butter, melted (or sub olive oil or avocado oil)
- Sprinkle with coarse sugar or organic sugar, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners and spray the inside of the liners with nonstick cooking spray.
- Mix together dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl add the orange zest and sugar and use your fingers to rub the orange zest into the sugar for at least 30 seconds to infuse the sugar with orange flavor.
- Mix together wet ingredients: In the same large bowl with the orange zest and sugar, add in eggs, orange juice, yogurt, vanilla extract and almond extract. (Do not mix in the butter yet!) Whisk together until well-combined and smooth.
- Combine: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. Finally, stir in the melted butter (or oil) until well combined. Do not overmix the batter, you just want to stir it until the batter is smooth.
- Bake: Divide batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with organic sugar or coarse sugar, if desired (but absolutely recommended). Bake for 15-19 minutes or until the tester comes out clean.
- Store: Store orange muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, then I recommend storing them in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. To freeze: store muffins in reusable silicone bags and freeze. When ready to serve, reheat for 30-45 seconds in the microwave or thaw at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on January 31st, 2024, and republished on April 21st, 2025.
What if you cannot use almond flour, so you sub out a 1:1 regular flour?
Hi! The almond flour is much more absorbent and contributes to the flavor here, so I wouldn’t suggest using all all-purpose flour. Sorry!
I absolutely recommend this recipe. The muffins were perfect, even better than the cupcakes I made the previous day. They were so citrusy, moist and surprisingly very fluffy. I will definitely adopt them to a cake recipe. I added a little bit of Mazoe Orange Crush (concentrate) which elavated the orange flavour, and added poppy seeds too for extra texture.
Love it! Glad you enjoyed!
My son requested orange muffins for his 5th birthday so I tried this recipe for the first time and they turned out absolutely perfect and delicious! I added some dried cranberries and almonds to half the batch and sprinkled coarse sugar on top. They were a big hit, topped with some whipped cream!
Amazing! Such a fun birthday treat!
YUM! So versatile, cant wait to try with chocolate chips!!
– I replaced the almond flour with all purpose, granulated sugar for the topping, no almost extract, and they still came out superb
I’m glad those swaps worked well! Perfect snack or treat 🙂
Lovely, delicious, light muffins! I reduced the flour to 170g and increased the almond meal to 96g as I wanted to use up some almond meal in my pantry. They worked out great! I found I needed more like 25 minutes to cook mine. And some granulated white sugar sprinkled on top before baking added a lovely crunchy element to the muffins. Divine!
I’m glad that swap worked out well! Such a great snack 🙂
Hii! I was wondering if i can substitute the egg with either milk and vinegar mixture or anything else instead?
Hi! I haven’t tested an egg-free version of these muffins, so I can’t be 100% sure. If you experiment, I’d suggest trying with 2 flax eggs instead. Let me know if you try it!
I love everything orange so had to make these. I added cranberries and were so delicious. Going on my rotation list.
Love that! I actually have a version with cranberries here, too 🙂
Can I use brown sugar instead?
I haven’t tested it but I don’t see why not!
These are delicious but I would like to bake the recipe in a loaf pan – will that work? I will be using gf flour. Thank you
Yes! I’d recommend baking it for around 45-60 minutes – just keep an eye on it 🙂
These muffins are absolutely lovely! The delicate orange flavor is perfect and pairs beautifully with the vanilla and almond extracts. The texture is so soft and tender—they almost melt in your mouth (in the best way). I will be adding these to my regular muffin rotation!
So good! Glad you loved them!
The absolute best muffins, these are my go to! So moist, they are always a hit! Wouldn’t change a thing.
One of my favs, too! Glad you love them!
Made these as written and they were okay, but didn’t really have much orange flavor to them; it was kind of a background to the almond. I was looking for a really orangey muffin. Next time I will substitute orange extract for the almond and/or vanilla extracts, and maybe brush on an orange simple syrup when they come out of them oven.
So strange! I’ve always found the zest and juice from 2 large oranges to give them plenty of orange flavor. Let me know how it goes with orange extract!
Made these for the first time and they’re delicious! Used mandarins instead of oranges (trickier to
zest and juice but delicious).Cranberries are a must! Thanks for the recipe☺️
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed!
Winner! The whole family loved these muffins. The orange is so refreshing!
I’m so glad!
Holy Moly these are delicious! I added the optional chocolate chips and did the olive oil swap. This has become a family favorite instantly. Thanks for another great recipe!
Perfect! Glad you loved them!
Wonderfully moist muffins
Ones of my favs 🙂
I made your orange muffins with the almonds on top, they are sooo good! I made them gluten free and you would never know it! They DID come out like bakery muffins! Thank you for sharing your creativity in the middle of having all those boys!
So happy to hear that!!
I made these on repeat for guests at our bed and breakfast and they were always a favorite! The sliced almonds add a fabuous touch of texture. Huge win, thank you for this recipe!
I would love to have these at a bed and breakfast – that sounds fabulous!
Made these and shared with my girlfriends We all gave it thumbs up! They are so moist and full of flavor. Will definitely make again. Thanks for a great recipe.
You’re so welcome! 🙂
These are delightful. I only had half the amount of sugar on hand so I used half honey and it worked out well. The sugar on top is key. I wish I would have also done the slivered almonds on top. Next time!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
These were so easy and really tasty. You wouldn’t know they were gluten free (I subbed for the AP flour). Loved the addition of the cranberries. A really great muffin that is airy (and better than most bakery muffins IMO). Excited to have these for Christmas Eve morning.
Perfect! So glad you loved them!
Is there a substitute for sugar like honey or maple syrup?
I wouldn’t recommend another sweetener in here as the flavor will be much different!
These muffins are delicious! Would it work to put cut up.fresh cranberries in this recipe?.If so do I need to.make any adjustments? Thank you
Yes, that should work! But perfect timing – come back to the blog tomorrow for a new recipe that combines the two 🙂
WOAH. I think I’ve made almost all of your healthy muffin recipes for weekly meal prep, so had completely forgotten how insanely delicious muffins taste when they have both butter and granulated sugar LOL. These muffins are tender, decadent, and the flavour combination of orange and almond was unreal. I made the recipe as written and I’m already planning to make them again.
Amazing! This is one of my favs, too 🙂 glad you loved them!
These are SO GOOD! The perfect crumb with the best orange flavor. I only did 3/4 cup sugar and found them plenty sweet. I also subbed olive oil for butter and used nonfat plain Greek yogurt and they turned out great!
Perfect! So glad you loved these!
Hi, thank you for this wonderful recipe. I would like to know if I can substitute the same quantity of All purpose flour if I don’t have any Almond flour on hand? If so , do I need to change the ratio of my liquids?
Hi! The almond flour is much more absorbent and contributes to the flavor here, so I wouldn’t suggest using all all-purpose flour. Sorry!
Really yummy! I’m currently waiting for them to cool so I can freeze some, without eating them in the meantime. Thank you for the recipe.
Wow these are incredible!!! My family devoured them in record time. Super tasty with the sliced almonds and some coarse sugar on top. Will be making these again pronto!
So happy to hear that!
This recipe produced great muffins.
I swapped out yogurt for sour cream
I used cane sugar (turbinado) which i think made a difference in the taste.
As per the recipe sprinkling the can sugar on top made a nice affect on the final product.
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
I’ve been making muffins every Friday for months. I look for a new flavor every time. Today I used this orange flavor. I made 3 separate batches. First batch was almost exactly the way the recipe is written with toasted almonds on top. Second batch i added homemade cinnamon chips to the batter. And the third batch I added blueberries. So the only things changed from your recipe were my fun inclusions and I only used 100g of sugar in each batch and they are perfectly sweet. I’ve been trying to reduce the sugar in my house for health reasons and to teach my children positive eating habits. I’ve used other recipes of yours as well. Thank you for sharing them.
Those toppings sound delicious! Glad you enjoyed!
Can I sub brown sugar?
I haven’t tested it so I’m not sure how it will change the flavor and texture here!
Very nice moist muffins. Better flavor for me when cool than fresh out of oven. I didn’t have almonds so i used coarse sugar and chopped pecans for topping. I will make these again! Thank you!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
Question: What are your thoughts on subbing orange for Tangerine? My friend’s tree is SO full I have a bunch of them….
That should work well!
This was a wonderful recipe! The muffins turned out beautifully fluffy, the tops were crunchy and the orange zest and juice made them sooo flavourful!
The muffins will seem a little bit squishy in the oven when they’re ready, but resist the urge to continue cooking, because this will result in drier muffins, and the tops will be a darker brown. Instead, leave them to cool just for a little bit at room temp after taking them out of the oven.
Great tips here! So glad you love these!
These muffins are delicious – we’ve made them twice now and sadly they’ve been burnt both times on the bottom. We reduced the cooking time by 2 minutes the second time and still the same result. The muffins aren’t overcooked or dry so I’m stumped as to what’s causing it. We may try and reduce the temp next time and see if that works. Otherwise delicious!
So strange! Has this happened to you with any other muffin recipes? Are you using muffin liners? I’m not sure what could be burning in these. Glad they’re delicious regardless!