Cranberry Orange Muffins
Bursting with tart, fresh cranberries and sweet orange, cranberry orange muffins are special enough for a holiday weekend breakfast but easy enough to make any day of the week.
Servings 12 muffins
Ingredients
- Zest of 1 orange
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup roughly chopped fresh cranberries
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup orange juice
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Coarse sugar for topping
US Customary - Metric
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, add the orange zest and granulated sugar. Mix the two together with your fingertips until the sugar is moistened and fragrant. Stir in the cranberries; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the egg, orange juice, buttermilk and oil. Create a small well in the dry ingredients, pouring the wet ingredients into the well and stirring just to combine. Fold in cranberries and their sugar.
- Divide batter evenly into the prepared muffin wells using a large (3 tablespoons) cookie scoop. Sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar.
- Bake at 425°F for 10 minutes. Leaving the oven door closed, set the oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for another 6-7 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
My favorite coarse sugar for topping muffins and quick breads is Sugar in the Raw Turbinado Cane Sugar.
If using frozen cranberries, do not thaw them before roughly chopping them.
Substitutions:
- You may substitute the vegetable oil for any neutral-flavored oil, such as avocado oil.
- For a dairy-free version, make a buttermilk substitute using dairy-free milk.
- For a vegan version, substitute the buttermilk as noted above and swap the egg for a flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons water, allow to thicken for 5 minutes).