These fluffy cranberry orange muffins will make your own home scent like the vacations! I hope they change into your new favourite vacation muffin recipe. They’re fluffy and moist and scrumptious—all the things I need a muffin to be.
These muffins are bursting with recent cranberry and orange taste. This recipe requires recent cranberries, that are typically accessible in United States grocery shops from October or November via December. It’s also possible to use frozen cranberries, however I don’t advocate dried cranberries right here.
These muffins are made with healthful components like entire wheat flour and Greek yogurt. They’re naturally sweetened with honey or maple syrup. You possibly can maintain these particulars to your self, although—nobody will guess that these muffins are more healthy than most.
You possibly can simply combine these collectively by hand. No mixer required. Serve them for breakfast or brunch, or carry them to your vacation events!
It took me eight tries to get these muffins excellent, however they had been completely definitely worth the effort. I’m sharing the recipe once more as a result of they’re simply so fantastic this time of yr.
Cranberry Orange Muffin Elements
Right here’s what you’ll have to make these cranberry-studded beauties:
Flour
I like to make use of white entire wheat flour or common entire wheat flour to make these muffins a bit more healthy. White entire wheat flour (accessible in well being meals shops or well-stocked grocery shops) is made with white wheat berries as an alternative of pink, and has a extra gentle taste consequently. So long as your entire wheat flour hasn’t been sitting on the shelf too lengthy, your muffins won’t have a robust “entire wheat” style. In actual fact, in case your flour smells rancid or your muffins style bitter, your flour has gone dangerous.
It’s also possible to use all-purpose flour for probably the most conventional muffin taste and fluff. To make these muffins gluten free, select Bob’s Crimson Mill’s gluten-free all-purpose mix. No adjustment to amount wanted with both one.
Tip: The correct option to measure flour is to spoon flour into your measuring cup and degree off the highest with a knife. Don’t scoop flour into your cups, or you possibly can find yourself with means an excessive amount of flour, and dry/robust muffins.
Baking powder and baking soda
These are leavening brokers, which assist the muffins rise so they’re mild and fluffy. These components aren’t the identical factor and aren’t interchangeable, so watch out together with your measurements!
Coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil or butter
Like all muffins, this recipe requires some fats to yield tender, wealthy and scrumptious outcomes. I usually use virgin coconut oil and may hardly style it. If you happen to use olive oil, I like to recommend a mildly flavored one, like California Olive Ranch’s On a regular basis selection. You actually can’t go incorrect with unsalted butter.
Honey or maple syrup
As an alternative of sugar, these muffins are naturally sweetened with honey or maple syrup! These do impart some scrumptious taste, so select your favourite.
Eggs
Eggs additionally act as a leavener, serving to the muffins rise whereas additionally imparting richness. When you have an egg allergy otherwise you’re a vegan, you possibly can substitute flax eggs (see recipe notes).
Greek yogurt
Yogurt replaces bitter cream, however gives the identical scrumptious richness and tang. Yum! Test the recipe notes for a buttermilk different (which could be made vegan).
Vanilla extract
You recognize, for some luscious vanilla taste.
Orange zest
The zest of 1 orange to infuse these muffins with taste. After you’re taking the zest off the orange, you possibly can slice it up and eat it. I do advocate shopping for on natural orange if you’ll find one, since pesticide residue sticks to the rind.
Recent cranberries
One bag is greater than sufficient. You’ll blitz these within the meals processor earlier than folding them into the batter. If you happen to’re utilizing frozen cranberries, don’t thaw them earlier than utilizing. Blitz them within the meals processor as directed and promptly fold them into the batter. When you have leftover cranberries, you possibly can freeze them for as much as one yr.
Dried cranberries aren’t a superb substitute for recent cranberries, for causes elaborated within the subsequent part.
Turbinado (uncooked) sugar
That is elective, however I like to recommend it. Turbinado sugar is massive crystal sugar that lends an irresistible glowing, crunchy prime to the muffins. I wager you possibly can even take a tiny bag of uncooked sugar dwelling out of your native espresso store!
Cranberry Orange Muffin Recipe Growth
I assumed this recipe was going to be really easy. Take my blueberry muffin recipe, substitute cranberries for the blueberries, add orange zest—finished. Not so quick, Kate!
Downside: The recent cranberries had been a lot larger than blueberries and so tart that they left mouth-puckering polka dots within the muffins. Fortuitously, I discovered a clue in America’s Check Kitchen’s cranberry muffin recipe.
Answer: Blitz the recent cranberries in a meals processor for a couple of seconds to interrupt them up. That means, you get scrumptious little bits of cranberries in each chew. This additionally allowed me to double the quantity of cranberries for optimum cranberry taste.
Downside: The muffins had been nonetheless far too tart, although (and I like tart).
Answer: To counteract the tartness of the cranberries, I added 1/4 cup extra honey or maple syrup, which made these muffins completely candy—not an excessive amount of, not too little.
Downside: The additional moisture from the extra liquid sweetener made the muffins flatten out on the highest. I needed fantastically domed, fluffy muffins, so I attempted reducing the quantity of yogurt, tweaking the baking powder and baking soda, and I used to be nearly prepared to surrender…
Answer: I went again to the unique components and added 1/4 cup extra flour. The muffins rose like a dream!
Eight tries later, I landed on good cranberry orange muffins! I hope you’ll make them whereas cranberries are nonetheless in season.
Watch How you can Make Fluffy Cranberry Orange Muffins
Really useful Tools
This part incorporates affiliate hyperlinks.
USA-made muffin tin: This sturdy muffin tin bakes stunning muffins and has a non-toxic, non-stick silicone coating. I by no means need to grease the cups!
11-cup meals processor: This Cuisinart isn’t too large or too small, and blitzes the cranberries in 5 seconds.
Microplane: It’s really easy to take away the zest from citrus with this useful device.
Love these muffins?
Listed below are extra of my favourite naturally sweetened, whole-wheat muffin recipes!
Please let me understand how these muffins end up for you within the feedback! I like listening to from you, and hope the recipe is an enormous hit.
Recent Cranberry Orange Muffins
- Writer:
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook dinner Time: quarter-hour
- Whole Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
- Class: Baked good
- Technique: By hand
- Delicacies: American
These cranberry muffins shall be your loved ones’s new favourite! Don’t inform them the recipe requires wholesome components. These fluffy muffins are bursting with recent cranberry and orange taste, plus they’re entire grain and naturally sweetened! Recipe yields 12 muffins.
Scale
Elements
- 2 cups recent or frozen cranberries
- 2 cups white entire wheat flour or common entire wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon high quality salt
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil or melted unsalted butter
- ¾ cup honey or maple syrup
- 2 eggs, ideally at room temperature
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt*
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Zest from 1 medium orange (about 1 teaspoon), ideally natural
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (additionally referred to as uncooked sugar), for sprinkling on prime
Directions
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Preheat the oven to 400 levels Fahrenheit. Grease all 12 cups of your muffin tin or line them with papers, if obligatory.
- In a meals processor, course of the cranberries for about 5 seconds, till they’re damaged into little bits (however not puréed—see photographs). Put aside.
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In a big mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to mix.
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In a medium mixing bowl, mix the oil and honey and beat along with a whisk. Add the eggs and whisk to mix, then add the yogurt, vanilla and orange zest. Combine nicely.
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Pour the moist components into the dry and blend with an enormous spoon, simply till mixed (a couple of lumps are okay). Gently fold the cranberry items into the batter.
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Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups (they are going to be fairly full). Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with turbinado sugar. Bake the muffins for 15 to 18 minutes, or till the muffins are golden on prime and a toothpick inserted right into a muffin comes out clear.
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Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to chill. You may have to run a butter knife alongside the outer fringe of the muffins to loosen them from the pan. When you have leftover muffins, retailer them, coated, at room temperature for two days, or within the fridge for as much as 5 days. Freeze leftover muffins for as much as 3 months.
Notes
Recipe tailored from my wholesome blueberry muffins.
*Notice on Greek yogurt: I’ve used a wide range of fats percentages and the muffins have all the time turned out nicely. Larger fats yogurt will yield a considerably extra wealthy muffin. It’s also possible to substitute plain (not Greek) yogurt, however your muffins may not rise fairly as excessive.
Make it dairy free: See buttermilk possibility above.
Make it gluten free: Substitute an all-purpose gluten-free flour mix for the entire wheat flour. Bob’s Crimson Mill makes a gluten-free mix that works nicely.
▸ Diet Data
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