Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Cranberry Orange Muffins

muffincranberryorange

After my last batch of blueberry muffins, all i could think about was baking muffins again! (Just in case it was a fluke the first time..haha) I don’t think I’ve felt this excited about a recipe, since CI’s CCC, which I’m still in the process of tweaking. This time, I decided to go with cranberries and orange. After repeatedly telling Audrey I would make her Cranberry Orange bread for months and not doing it was a little embarassing! Rather than baking a loaf, I decided to go with the cranberry orange combination in a muffin form. The only changes I made to the original recipe was add 2 tablespoons (1/4 cup for full recipe) of sugar and 1 tablespoon (2 tablespoons for full recipe) of sugar to the cranberry sauce because cranberries are more sour than blueberries. Last time, I baked at 375 because I was afraid of over drying, since I halved the recipe and made them smaller. This time, I decided to bake at 400F to see if I could get a better rise. After 10 minutes, I lowered the temperature back down to 350 because I had a feeling they would dry out. I think I’m going to have to make a full recipe (which shouldn’t be a problem!) so I can bake at 400 and get higher tops without worrying about overdoneness.

muffincranberryorange (2)

Other than the texture, another reason I absolutely love these muffins is their ability to stay fresh for a longer period of time. The next day, the muffins were still moist (although not as much as the first day) and not crumbly at all! Isn’t it weird that something that has less fat than a yellow cake and uses all purpose flour manages to stay moist yet my Billy Billy vanilla cupcakes do a 180 on me and transform from 'cake mix' like texture to crumbly a few hours later?

Cranberry Orange Muffins
Original recipe from food according to me

2 cups fresh cranberries, quartered
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, 12 ½ ounces
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
8 ounces white sugar (I just used 1 1/4 cup) + 2 tablespoons (for cooking the sauce
3 large whole eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk (I used 1 tbsp vinegar and added milk until it reached one cup)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp turbinado sugar
zest of one orange

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position to heat oven to 400ºF. (I used 375)Prepare muffin tins.
2. Bring 1 cup fresh cranberries to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently and pressing cranberries against the side of the pot, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened, about five minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in the large bowl. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, orange zest together until pale and fluffy. Slowly whisk in melted butter and oil. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined.
5. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in remaining one cup cranberries.
6. Gently fold in flour mixture until just moistened. Batter will be very lumpy.
7. Using a large spoon, divide half of the batter equally among the 12 muffin cups (about a third filled.) Place a heaping teaspoon of berry mixture on top of batter. Scoop remaining batter on top of berry filling. Using a bamboo skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter.
8. Sprinkle turbinado sugar on top of the muffins.
9. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes. (I took them out when a toothpick inserted had like 2 mini crumbs attached - almost perfectly clean, but not with huge crumbs attached either). Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool for five minutes more before serving.

24 comments:

  1. Steph, I'm so glad you enjoyed this flavor combination! I still have some cranberries in my freezer and some buttermilk, so I would love to try these. And please don't be embarassed...I have such a terminal case of recipe overload that I will never get to all the recipes I want to try!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the cranberry-orange combination! I've been looking for a good muffin with these flavors, and looks like you've just found it for me! Your muffins look delicious and oh so tender.

    ReplyDelete
  3. These are gorgeous, I just wish I had some cranberries left in the freezer!

    ReplyDelete
  4. These look fabulous and luckily I discovered more cranberries in my freezer! Your pics are beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh i love the color combination! so bright!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Keep the muffins coming, girl!! Love them!! :-D

    ReplyDelete
  7. You are the muffin queen! I wouldn't ordinarily go to a cranberry muffin but now I have t have one!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dried and fresh cranberries! These are over the muffin top good!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mmmmm the cranberry and orange combination sounds lovely. The pink spreading through the muffin looks beautiful and moist! x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those cranberry muffins look so fresh and colourful and good!

    ReplyDelete
  11. At least you get a good texture out of you "Billys" cupcakes. Mine are ALWAYS crumbly. Bleh!

    The muffins look fantab!

    CI's recipe for CCC... What is "CCC???" I'm curious.

    ReplyDelete
  12. RE: I've made both Italian and Swiss meringue. In my experience it's just so much easier to make Swiss meringue. The first time I made Italian meringue, it deflated the same day! It didn't do that the 2nd time I made it, but Swiss meringue has never done that to me.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The Swiss meringue was a little deflated the next day (the ONE cupcake that survived!), but it was still totally yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. MMmmmmm! These look great! What an appealing photo!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh wow, these look fantastic. I am becoming such a huge fan of anything with cranberries.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Look at the colours in those!! Wow, you've captured them really well!! Ohh I'm surprised these muffins stay moist after 24 hours, because they mostly dry out during that period of time. With your billy billy vanilla cupcakes, maybe try baking them at a lower temperature and at a shorter time. I had the same problem with a cake recipe sometime ago and rectified it my decreasing the temperature and baking time.

    ReplyDelete
  17. They're really pretty Steph. I used dried cranberries in mine, and they weren't anywhere as gorgeous as yours :( I'd have this for breakfast any day.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This sounds like a great combination!! Now I know what to do with my leftover oranges ;)

    I have a couple of awards for you if you can stop by my blog and pick them up!

    ReplyDelete
  19. These look gergeous, I love the colors and flavors. The look so moist.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Very nice to hear! I'm a firm believer that allowing cookie dough to chill and really distribute moisture and flavor is a crucial step. They should start adding it to the recipes!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi!! I found your blog looking for this recipe. I made them and loved them!! Mine didn't look as pretty as yours though. I posted the link to this entry in my blog if you don't mind.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I think you forgot to mention where you mix the 2 Tbsp of sugar with the 1 c. cranberries in the saucepan. Do you add anything else to the mixture? A little water?

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails