Cranberry Orange Muffins

I've always said muffins are just cupcakes without the icing...but they are a GREAT excuse to eat dessert at breakfast time! For the last week I have been working on perfecting granola bars (more on those when I do actually figure it out) and I am a little granola-ed out so I decided to take a break and make a different breakfast treat, Cranberry Orange Muffins. I always have found it funny that people can like flavors of certain foods but not like that actual food. For example, I love orange flavored foods and desserts, but you will rarely ever see me actually eat an orange. We had these oranges on our counter for a while and instead of letting them only be decoration I decided to "eat" them.


I adapted this recipe from another blog (Glorious Treats). I found them to dry out a little quickly, so I would add 1/4 cup of sour cream to my next batch. I find that sour cream and/ or apple sauce to most of my breakfast bread recipes give it that little boost of moistness that allows them to keep for a few days. Happy Breakfast Baking!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

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

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

1 Tablespoon fresh orange zest

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon orange extract

2 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, canola or olive)

1/4 cup Sour Cream or Apple Sauce

1/2 cup milk (any fat content)

1) Pull out and measure your ingredients, or at least the butter, it must be at room temperature.


2) Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Line muffin or cupcake tin with papers. 


3) Zest  a whole orange (makes about 1 tablespoon). Cut and squeeze the juice out of the orange to make about 1/3 cup of juice. If you do not have enough juice from the orange go ahead and add some prepared orange juice to get the full 1/3 cup. 

You can use the small side of a standard grater if you don't have a zester.

4) Pour the orange juice and cranberries into a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a low boil and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Set aside.

5) Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
6) In another large bowl beat with a hand or stand mixer the butter, orange zest and sugar until fluffy.
7) Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg. Mix in vanilla extract, orange extract, oil and sour cream. 
8) Alternate mixing in the flour mixture and the milk (begin and end with flour).


9) Stir in cooked cranberries, careful not to over mix.


10) Pour batter into prepared muffin tins (about 3/4 full). 

Bake in heated oven for 18-20 minutes. Test by sticking a toothpick into the center to see if they are done (moist crumbs but not wet).

Yield: Roughly 12 standard Muffins.

Make them dessert....yum!

Mix powdered sugar with fresh squeezed orange juice to make a glaze (roughly 3 to 1 ratio). Keep adding powdered sugar a little at a time until the glaze is about the thickness of cinnamon roll glaze. Dip the tops of the muffins into the glaze and let dry.