Fresh Cranberry Muffins are loaded with tangy pops of cranberry ~ they’re a delicious way to celebrate the unique color and flavor of my favorite winter fruit. This easy one bowl recipe proves that comfort food can definitely be bright and fresh!
Fresh cranberry muffins are a winter holiday tradition
Baking with fresh cranberries is one of the great joys of the fall and winter season for me. I adore them for their super tart, bright flavor, and that color! I use them in everything from smoothies to pork roast.
If you’re a lemon lover, I think you’re bound to be a cranberry lover too, the two fruits share a tart tang like no other. (My mouth waters just looking at that bright pink juice dribbling out of the muffins!)
My basic muffin recipe is no fail and so adaptable
I’ve used this same basic batter for many of my recent muffin recipes on the blog because when something works, I go with it. It’s got a super fluffy texture, rises well, and is very easy to adapt to different flavors and add-ins.
- Pear Muffins with Hazelnut Streusel
- Orange and Cardamom Muffins
- Easy Oat Muffins with Cinnamon Sugar
- Perfect Black Raspberry Muffins
A dusting of sparkling sugar makes these cranberry muffins Christmas morning material
I love my sparkling sugar when I want a little bit of a finishing touch for cakes, muffins, or pies, but I don’t want to fuss with making a separate crumb topping or glaze. It gives a sparkle and crunch to the top of these muffins, and the little extra sweet with the tart berries is perfect.
Sparkling sugar
Sparkling sugar is a decorative sugar that has a large crystal structure. You can add it before baking, or sprinkle it on just as your baked goods come out of the oven. Often I’ll do both 😉
You can use fresh or frozen cranberries for these muffins
Be sure to save some cranberries for these muffins, and when you finally run out of fresh, dig into your frozen stash. When baking with frozen berries it’s best not to thaw them, because they can become watery: I like to use them straight from the freezer instead.
variation suggestions
- add the zest of an orange to the batter – orange and cranberry is an incredible combination!
- add sliced almonds or chopped walnuts for extra flavor and crunch
- use any other kind of berries – fresh or frozen – that you like in place of the cranberries
- add some winter spices like cinnamon and clove
WANT TO TRY THESE CRANBERRY MUFFINS?
PIN THEM TO YOUR FAVORITE BAKING BOARD SO YOU DON’T LOSE THEM.
JOIN ME ON PINTEREST FOR MORE CREATIVE RECIPES ~ I LOVE TO PIN !
Fresh Cranberry Muffins
Equipment
- 12 cup muffin pan
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup milk, or half and half
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp almond extract (or substitute vanilla extract)
- 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
- 3 Tbsp sparkling sugar, for topping (optional), Find sparkling sugar online here
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and butter a 12-cup muffin tin, or line with muffin tin liners.
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the vegetable oil, milk, and eggs, and almond extract, and whisk everything together until well blended.
- Add the cranberries and fold to combine.
- Divide the batter into the muffin tins, and top with the sparkling sugar. Bake for about 25 minutes until risen and just starting to turn golden on top.
- Allow to cool in the muffin tins before removing.
Nutrition
The muffins themselves were amazing, fluffy and moist. I will definitely use this for muffins in the future. However, I do not know why but the cranberries tasted like battery acid! Is there any way to fix this with fresh cranberries? Maybe macerating them in sugar?
Oooh , it sounds like you must have gotten a bad batch of berries, Lauren!
I found these recipe looking for a way to use up my fresh cranberries that I bought instead of dried cranberries.
BEST MUFFINS EVER!!!!!
Thank you very much.
Made this with dried cranberries, chocolate chips and smashed up mixed nuts! I like how they aren’t too sweet. However, I may have accidentally put 1/4 c less of milk. They still came out delicious. I want to make an orange/cranberry version of these! Maybe even lemon blueberry poppyseed!
I like the way you think!
I needed some tweaks. I feel as though there may not have been enough baking powder in it as these did not rise much and had a dense interior. The sweetness was very low which is not a bad thing but I was going for cakey sweet muffins.
Sorry these didn’t work for you Anne.
Easy to make but I’ve had better. I think the next time I would substitute the milk for orange juice.
Sue, this recipe is DELICIOUS!!! I just made them in my bakery-size muffin tins and it made 8 jumbo muffins! Of course I had to try one before giving them away and YUM 😋! The only changes I made were: I add 3/4 cup Simply Orange orange mango juice, the zest of 1/2 large navel orange, 2/3 cup sugar and added about 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate morsels. I also added sparkling sugar on top. I had to lower the temp after 20 minutes to 330 degrees as they started to brown and weren’t completely baked yet and covered the tops with foil. You won’t be disappointed if you make these; another great recipe!!!
Many thanks for all your recipes, the in-depth detail directions and beautiful photos!!
Hope you have a great weekend.
Susan
This recipe was easy to whip up and so appealing to the eye, but so, so tart. Unfortunately, my husband nor my kids were willing to eat more than one bite. I am going to throw them away 🙁
Cranberries can actually vary in their tartness, so could be you got a super tart variety. Make sure you don’t reduce the sugar in this recipe, and I find that the sugar coating on top really makes a difference, it adds that little bit of sweet in every bite to offset the tart berries.
what do not throw away give them to someone else..never waste food!
Is it OK to use melted butter instead of oil? Would it be the same measurements?
Yes, and same measurements.
Can I use an egg substitute? Would you reccomend any? Could flaxseed work?
I recommend the Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour egg replacers, they’re made for baking and they work well.
Use same amount of Flour (King Arthurs gluten free Measure for Measure flour) Bake time MIGHT be slightly less ?. Tip,: My baking improved ALOT when I started weighing the ingredients…especially the flour. 2C Flour is 240 grams. Scales are not pricy They can run 35.00 ish dollars on amazon I put a small bowl on the scale Then zero out that wt. Then add flour till it hits 240g. IF you do not have a scale, Follow these steps 1) fluff up the flour to loosen the compacted flour LIGHTLY sprinkle flour into a measuring cup. Slightly rounded. Level off with the flat side of a knife. DO NOT measure by scoiping the cup into the flour. That compacts the flour, so your baked good could be too dry.. DO NOT DUMP flour into measuring cuo…lightly sprinkle. The scale is both quicker & easier.