Desserts & Baking

Blood orange chia seed muffins

By
22 January 2026
12–15
Easy
10 minutes
20–25 minutes

These fluffy, light, easy egg-free muffins showcase the beautiful flavour in blood oranges and are a modern play on the lemon poppy seed muffins I love so much. Did you know that 1½ tablespoons of chai seeds mixed with 100 ml water can be used to replace eggs in baking? Make the mixture but set it aside for use the next day if necessary.

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Ingredients

Method
  • 1½ T chia seeds
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 125 g brown sugar
  • 31/2 T sunflower oil or melted coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup plant milk of choice (I used almond milk)
  • 100 g grated apple
  • 2 blood oranges, zested
  • 200 g cake flour
  • 2 t baking powder
  • ¼ t bicarbonate of soda

Method

Ingredients

1. Place the chia seeds into a jug or bowl and pour in the water. Stir and allow to soak for 15 minutes. They should soak up the water and become gel-like in consistency.

2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190℃. Line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper cases.

3. Beat together the sugar, oil, almond milk, apple and orange zest until well incorporated. Beat in the soaked chia seeds.

4. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, then fold into the chia seed mixture.

5. Spoon the batter into the muffin cases and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes or until the muffins are well risen and firm to the touch. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Find more muffins recipe here

Photographer: Jan Ras
Food assistant: Bianca Jones

Khanya Mzongwana

Recipe by: Khanya Mzongwana

If you're anything like our deputy food editor Khanya Mzongwana, you're obsessed with uniqueness and food with feeling. Cook her family-tested favourites, midweek winners and her mouth-wateringly fresh takes on plant-based eating.

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