Cranberry Orange Muffins
Back in the nineties, cranberry-orange everything was all the rage in coffee shops – and when we went to those first few that began taking over our Saturday mornings, Mike always ordered cranberry orange in muffin and loaf form. Although it’s not as common a flavour combination these days, it came to mind on Sunday morning as I puttered around the kitchen and although I didn’t really need to bake anything, slush was falling from the sky outside and I wanted to warm up with the smell of something baking.
Also: second coffee.
These are super simple – templates for any kind of muffin, really. Grate the zest finely (I use a microplane – best tool ever) and stir it into the wet ingredients to allow it to release as much flavour as possible (if I’m making a cake or recipe that requires beating of butter and sugar together, I add it there) – but it could be lemon zest, and they could be blueberries. Or saskatoons, or whatever you’ve stashed away in your freezer. Add berries frozen, don’t thaw them, or they’ll release their juices into the batter, turning your muffins blue or pink. (I like them to retain their pop.)
Cranberry Orange Muffins
AuthorJulie
Preheat the oven to 400F.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a smaller bowl or measuring cup, stir together the melted butter or oil, eggs, milk and orange zest. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until almost combined; add the cranberries and stir just until blended.
Fill paper-lined muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch. Makes about 1 dozen muffins.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400F.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a smaller bowl or measuring cup, stir together the melted butter or oil, eggs, milk and orange zest. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until almost combined; add the cranberries and stir just until blended.
Fill paper-lined muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch. Makes about 1 dozen muffins.
I totally remember the cranberry orange craze of the 90s! It must have been replaced by pumpkin spice everything. Thanks for the lovely-looking recipe. Gonna make some today.
I totally forgot about cranberry-orange! I used to love that combo. Have to give these a try. They look delicious. Thanks!
As I put away our turkey leftovers last night, I thought to make cranberry orange muffins with my half bag of fresh berries. Thanks for the recipe! For extra flavour, I will juice my orange after zesting it, then top up the juice with milk to make 3/4 cup.
If you use fresh cranberries do you precook them?
Not at all – just toss them in raw!
These muffins turned out amazing!!! I used a giant muffin tin. Made six perfect muffins. I used blueberries instead of cranberries and I cooked for an extra 5 minutes!
so glad to hear it!