Orange Cranberry Muffins

5 from 1 vote

These delicious & guilt-free Orange&Cranberry Muffins are the perfect accompaniment to your morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Prep Time40

Cook Time25

Total Time1 5

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American, Western

Diet: Low Salt, Vegetarian

Servings: muffins

Calories: 275kcal

Author: Ayla Clulee

Equipment

1 Two 12-cup nonstick muffin pans
1 kitchen scale
1 Measuring cups
1 measuring spoons
1 Cuisinart mixer
1 Rubber spatula

Ingredients

350 g all purpose flour
200 g caster (granulated) sugar
115 g unsalted butter (melted and cooled down for 10 minutes)
2 eggs (at room temperature)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange zest (finely grated)
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
⅓ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon baking powder
80 ml orange juice
200 g fresh cranberries (you can use frozen cranberries but do not use dried cranberries)
220 ml buttermilk (at room temperature)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175 °C / 350 °F.
Place the muffin baking papers into a medium-sized 12-cup muffin mold (I use 12 cups - 38 x 27 x 3 cm muffin mold) and set aside until needed.
In a medium bowl, toss the cranberries with a handful of flour and have the cranberries covered with a thin layer of flour.
In a large bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, sea salt, ground cardamom, and ground nutmeg, and set aside.
In another large bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla extract and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until the mixture is well combined. Do not over-mix it.
Add eggs one at a time to the wet mixture and beat the mixture until the eggs are well combined. Set the batter aside.
In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk and orange juice and whisk until it is combined well.
At this stage, either switch to a hand whisker or silicone spatula. To the egg mixture, slowly add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture by alternating between them until all 3 mixtures are fully combined. Make sure not to over-mix at this stage, only gently fold the mixture to make sure everything is combined well.
Add the cranberries and the orange zest to the batter and gently fold them into the mixture.
Divide the batter evenly among the 12 molds with the help of an ice cream scooper or a tablespoon.
Bake the muffins for around 25 minutes or until the top of the muffins gets lightly golden brown. If you are not sure, insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.
Let the muffins cool down for at least 15 minutes in the tray before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Notes

Make sure the eggs are at room temperature before using them in the cake batter.
You may use the same amount of frozen cranberries as you would fresh ones.

To prevent the fresh or frozen cranberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins as they bake, lightly toss them in a bit of flour, just enough to coat them.

Measure the flour correctly using an electronic scale. However, if you don’t have a scale, be sure to fluff your flour with a spoon and then spoon it into your cups before leveling it off with a knife to avoid overfilling the measuring cup.

To check if your Cranberry & Orange Muffins are ready, insert a toothpick into the center of one muffin. If the toothpick comes out clean with no wet batter, they have finished baking.

Nutrition