This past Easter, I had brunch with my family in New York at Maialino. I think we are all on the same wavelength about brunch (and about facing other people early in the morning) because we sat down at the civilized hour of 2pm.
After we all ordered what we wanted and we also added a basket of pastries for us to share. Before the waiter walked away, someone said, “Let’s get an olive oil muffin, too.”
Ripping into that muffin and taking bites of it, we each stopped what we were doing and said, “Wow, that’s good!” If I had been by myself (and paying), I probably would have ordered another one. But instead, I kept my mouth shut and finished brunch along with everyone else.
But I had those muffins in my head (just like I can’t get the music from Hamilton out of my head, which I also saw when I was in New York – a friend of mine told me she had to stop listening to the soundtrack because she couldn’t get anything else done in her life either) and when I got home, I found the restaurant’s recipe for Olive Oil Cake on Food52. The recipe made a 9-inch (23cm) cake and I decided to adapt it to muffins. I retooled the quantities of ingredients, reducing some and increasing others, scaling them down to fit nicely into eight muffin cups.
A couple of notes: The quality of the olive oil is important to these muffins. An inside source told me the pastry chef at the restaurant uses a Barbera olive oil, while I’ve heard other say the olive oil they use is from Liguria. Hmmmm…. So I’d recommend using a fruity, full-flavored oil olive that’s available to you.
Another important player in these muffins is the Grand Marnier. The liqueur adds a dynamic, slightly bitter orange flavor to the cake that contrasts nicely with the olive oil.