Cranberry Orange Muffin Recipe

These muffins are the perfect combination of sweet and tart. They make a great breakfast or snack option, and if you want to share the love, you can turn them into mini loaves and give them to friends. If you're looking for comforting flavors that remind you of loved ones getting together at the holidays, this is the recipe for you!

Cranberry Orange Muffin Recipe

This recipe will make 12-16 muffins, or one quick bread loaf.

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons, 115g) butter, at room temperature

• 3/4 cup (150g) sugar

• 1//2 teaspoon orange, almond, or vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon orange extract or 2 teaspoons grated orange peel

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg*

• 3 large eggs

• 1 3/4 cups (210g) all-purpose flour**

• 1/2 cup (115g) buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, you can use ¾ cup of milk plus ¾ teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar or 1 ¼ teaspoons cream of tartar)

• 1 1/2 cup (170g) dried fruit (raisins, prunes, dried cranberries, and dried apricots all work well!)

* You can also use 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking spice or pumpkin pie spice.

** I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup of all-purpose to make the muffins a bit healthier, but you can use whatever ratio you want.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a muffin tin or a 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan.

2. Pour the dried fruit into a small bowl and fill with water until the fruit is just covered. Add the 1/2 teaspoon of extract. This will plump up the fruit, making your muffins more moist, as well as infusing them with more flavor.

3. Roughly chop the pieces of fruit until they're about 1/2 an inch across. This isn't as necessary for raisins and cranberries but is important if you're using prunes or apricots.

4. In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, orange extract or peel, the salt, baking powder and spices until well blended.

5. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating until fluffy after each addition.

6. Stir in the flour, then add the buttermilk 1/4 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. Gently mix in the fruit.

7. Spoon the batter into your muffin tin or loaf pan.

8. Bake the muffins for 25 minutes. If you're making a loaf, bake the bread for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

9. Remove the pan from the oven, and let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack. You can take the muffins out of the pan immediately.

You can store the muffins or bread on the counter for 5 days if they're well-wrapped, or you can pop them in the freezer. They'll keep well frozen for 3 months, and you can take them out whenever you want and put them in the toaster or oven for a few minutes to bring them back to toasty goodness.