Recipe adapted from Olive Oil Cake at Food52 by Rachel Binder and Gerri Sarnataro from Maialino restaurant
The Grand Marnier plays a big role in the flavor of these muffins. If you don’t want to use alcohol, you could try the muffins with orange juice with a spoonful of orange extract added but they won’t have the same dynamic flavor the originals have. (I haven’t tried it personally, so if you do, let us know in the comments what you did and how it worked out.) One reader in the comments mentioned she’d added some orange marmalade (which is made with bitter oranges) which got me thinking that maybe you could swap out the 1/3 cup orange juice/Grand Marnier with 1/3 cup of orange marmalade, chopped fine if it has large shreds of orange peel in it.
You could add a few drops of vanilla or almond extract to the batter if you wish, either way, although my French taster said not to touch them or do anything else – that they were perfect.
The muffin cups I used are called mini-Panettone molds and can be found in some cookware shops and online. They were 2 1/2 x 1 3/4-inches. (About 6 x 4.5cm.) You could use other size muffin cups and fill them about 2/3rds to 3/4s full.
