{What's Cooking} Cranberry-Orange Muffins

The other day I was searching for a festive muffin recipe when I came across this Cranberry-Orange Muffin recipe over at Glorious Treats. I tested them out today with the kids and they are a hit in our house. These will definitely be making another appearance on Christmas morning this year.

{Image: Glorious Treats }

Here is the recipe from Glorious Treats. I did make a few changes, which I note after the recipe.

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup dried (sweetened) cranberries

1/3 cup fresh orange juice

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 Tablespoon fresh orange zest (the zest of one whole orange)

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon orange extract

2 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, canola or olive)

1/2 cup milk (any fat content)

Directions :

1.) Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a muffin/cupcake pan with paper liners.

2.) Zest one whole orange (making about 1 Tablespoon of zest) and set aside.

Squeeze the juice from that one orange (about 1/3 cup).

3.) Put the orange juice (if needed, add some prepared orange juice to the fresh juice to make 1/3 cup) and the cranberries in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer about 5 minutes, stirring as needed. Turn off heat and set aside.

4.) In a large bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ginger, and set aside.

5.) In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, orange zest and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).

6.) Scrape down the side of the bowl, then add in the eggs (one at a time), vanilla, orange extract, and oil. Blend until well combined.

7.) Add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk (add about half of the flour mixture, then some milk,then the rest of the flour, and the rest of the milk). Fold in the cranberries. Do not over mix.

8.) Scoop batter into prepared muffin/cupcake pan.

Bake muffins about 20 minutes (test with a toothpick, there should be moist crumbs, but not wet).

9.) Cool muffins on a wire cooling rack.

Enjoy the muffins while still warm, or when cool. They are best the day they are made, but are still very good the next day.

Yields about 8 large or 12 medium (standard) muffins.

Recipe Source ~ Glorious Treats

 

** I did not use the powdered ginger because I did not have any. We love cranberries, so I used closer to 1 1/4 cups of cranberries and increased the amount of orange juice slightly as well. I also peeled and diced up a large orange and folded it into the batter along with the cranberries. I LOVED the random chunks of orange in the muffins along with the cranberries. With my changes, this recipe ended up making 15 standard sized muffins and they only needed to cook for 14 minutes.***

 

Enjoy!