Grandma Jean's Date-Orange Muffins

I tried these at my Grandma's last week. They were so good I asked for the recipe. She said they came from an old community cookbook from her hometown. The muffins are really moist and have an intense orange flavour. I'll bet chocolate chips would be a good substitute if you don't like dates.

Date-Orange Muffins

1 whole orange

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup chopped dates

1 egg

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cupsugar

3/4 tsp salt

Cut orange and remove seeds put in blender with juice and blend until rind is fine. Add dates egg and butter whirl again.Sift flour soda salt baking powder and sugar into a bowl. Pour orange mix over and stir lightly until just mixed.Put in buttered muffin tins.
Bake at 400f for 15 minutes .about 18 or 20 muffins

EDITED TO ADD: I bumped up the protein in this recipe by replacing a half cup of the flour with vanilla protein powder. This did not affect the flavour or texture of the muffins.