Almond-scented orange muffins

This morning, with much sadness, I threw out a half dozen Honeybell oranges that had spoiled from neglect. I greedily ordered an overly large box this year and, after the initial thrill, lost track of them. There were enough, fortunately, to try a variation on a simple recipe I found online for orange muffins.

I followed the instructions generally, but I decreased the oil by a tablespoon and substituted an equal amount of applesauce. I also added a teaspoon of almond extract and topped the muffins with a scattering of about 2 tablespoons of sliced almonds. While the original calls for a baking time of 20-25 minutes, I found that 18-20 was plenty for them to set and develop nicely browned tops. Given that they are a bit dense, I suggest not fretting about cooling time and dive in right away.

The aroma while baking made me feel a little less terrible about dumping all those oranges into the compost bin. Now that the has butter melted, I think I'm over it.