It’s cranberry season!! I get just about as excited for cranberry season every year as I do for pumpkin season in early October. I just love those tart little berries more than I can express. And now that I’m near Aldi and can get a bag of fresh cranberries for $0.99, I’m even more excited! I decided to celebrate today by making these Orange Cranberry Muffins, which are a variation on the cranberry bread my mother always made every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Its sweet, tart, and totally indulgent.
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From Bread to Muffins…
I decided to turn my cranberry bread into Orange Cranberry Muffins because I like the automatic portion control and I always found the bread too delicate to effectively slice. I also upped the orange by adding a healthy dose of zest to both the muffin batter and the streusel topping. While we usually put walnuts in the bread too, I decided to keep it budget-friendly and skip the walnuts this time around (Aldi is also a great place to get inexpensive nuts, BTW).
Freezer Friendly!
I rarely make muffins because they’re loaded with sugar, so when I do I always freeze them after baking and cooling. Muffins and other baked goods freeze really well so you can just take one out every now and then instead of trying to eat an entire 12 muffin batch in a week. They thaw relatively quickly at room temperature, or a quick 30 seconds in the microwave should do the trick.
Orange Cranberry Muffins
Servings 12Ingredients
- 1 large orange, zested and juiced ($1.00)
Streusel (optional)
- 1.5 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 1.5 Tbsp white sugar ($0.3)
- 1/8 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 2 Tbsp butter, melted ($0.26)
- 6 Tbsp all-purpose flour ($0.05)
Muffins
- 2 cups flour ($0.27)
- 1 cup white sugar ($0.32)
- 1.5 tsp baking powder ($0.06)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda ($0.01)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 4 Tbsp butter ($0.52)
- 1 large egg ($0.27)
- 1.5 cups fresh cranberries ($0.50)
- Butter and flour for coating the muffin tin ($0.15)
Instructions
- Use a zester or small holed cheese grater to remove the zest from the orange. Squeeze as much juice from the orange as possible. You’ll need at least 1/2 cup, but no more than 3/4 cup juice. Set the zest and juice aside until they are needed. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Create the streusel first so it’s ready to go on the muffins as soon as the batter is mixed. In a small bowl stir together the brown sugar, white sugar, 1/4 tsp of the orange zest, salt, and melted butter. Once mixed, add the flour and stir to combine again until the flour creates a sort of paste with the butter and sugar. Set the streusel aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for the muffin batter. Once mixed, add 1/4 tsp orange zest and the butter in chunks, then work the butter and zest into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the egg with 3/4 cup orange juice and whisk until the egg is incorporated. If you have slightly less than 3/4 juice from the orange, you can top it off with water to make 3/4 cup, but make sure you have at least 1/2 cup juice to maintain the flavor.
- Pour the juice and egg mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir just until the mixture has moistened. Do not over stir. Add the cranberries (whole or chopped) and fold them into the batter.
- Use about 1/2 Tbsp butter to coat the inside wells of a 12 muffin tin. Once coated in butter, spoon a little flour in each well and then tilt the tin until the flour coats all sides of each well. Dump out any excess flour.
- Divide the muffin batter between the 12 wells in the muffin tin, then top with a generous sprinkle of the streusel topping (make sure it’s in clumps). Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown on top. Let the muffins cool before loosening and removing them from the tin.
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Cranberry Orange Muffins – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Zest and juice the orange first because you’ll need some of the zest for both the streusel topping and the muffin batter. You’ll need 3/4 cup juice for the muffin batter, but if you can’t get quite that much, it’s okay. Just make sure you get 1/2 cup minimum.
To start the streusel combine 1.5 Tbsp brown sugar, 1.5 Tbsp white sugar, 1/4 tsp orange zest, 1/8 tsp salt, and 2 Tbsp melted butter in a small bowl.
Add 6 Tbsp all-purpose flour and stir until it forms a crumbly paste. Set the streusel aside.
To begin the muffin batter, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup white sugar, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt in a large bowl. Stir until they are well combined.
Add 4 Tbsp butter and 1/2 tsp of the orange zest. Work the butter and zest into the flour mixture until it becomes a crumbly mixture.
In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine one large egg and 3/4 cup orange juice (if you have slightly less than 3/4 cup juice, just top it off with water to make 3/4 cup). Lightly whisk the mixture to break up the egg. Add the egg and juice to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir just until all of the mixture is moistened. Add 1.5 cups fresh cranberries (whole or roughly chopped) and fold them into the batter. Do not over stir the batter.
Smear butter inside the wells of a 12 muffin tin. Spoon a little flour into each well, then tilt the tin to coat all sides with the flour. Dump out the extra flour.
Divide the muffin batter between all 12 wells of the muffin tin.
Add the streusel topping to each muffin. Make sure the streusel is in clumps.
Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown on top. Let the muffins cool a bit before loosening and removing them from the tin.
I’ve just made these on a cold snowy dreary working-from-home Monday and they are heaven! Such a lovely moist texture, not too sweet, and nicely zesty. Ate 2 while still warm, no regrets. Thank you so much for the recipe!
I am not trying to be negative because I haven’t tried this yet, but I noticed in the picture they do not look really moist or dense. Can you tell me how moist they are?
We think they’re perfectly moist! But if you wanted to substitute the cranberries with a fruit that contains more natural moisture (like blueberries or sliced strawberries) you could totally do that! ~ Marion :)
So good! Because of another comment, I only used 4 tablespoons of flour in the streusel which worked well for me with plenty to cover all muffins (I made 13 so they didn’t overflow). I will definitely make these easy and delicious muffins again.
Anybody else have trouble getting the amount of juice required??( 2 oranges got me less than 1/2 cup)
It would be helpful if the ingredients list included the amount of zest. It would have saved me the time and effort of zesting the whole orange. Also, I did this in a minimuffin tin, and I believe 24 minimuffins equal 12 regular ones. I filled the tins too full and still had leftover batter. The muffins overflowed. They had square tops because they covered the whole pan. And they stuck. I should have known better, because I’ve made muffins before, but it might have helped if the instructions said something like “fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Also, I greased (with Crisco) but didn’t flour the tins, which I have done in the past with other recipes and never had such a problem getting the muffins out. I think this recipe has quite a bit more sugar in it than others I’ve made, and perhaps that made them stick more. But in the end, they were lots of VERY DELICIOUS broken muffin bits. I will make them again with less sugar and paper liners filled 3/4 full.
I forgot what I had written here. I made them again but used the full amount of sugar, and replaced the cranberries with jammy bits from King Arthur Flour. I did remember how they overflowed so this time I made 14 regular muffins. They were moist and delicious but I will try again with less sugar. The tops did overflow, but not as much, and they were totally flat, not round. One thing I did differently was to melt the butter and add it to the egg and orange juice, then add them all to the dry ingredients. I believe I’ve done this with other muffin recipes, and cutting the butter into the dry ingredients just seemed like too much work, but perhaps that is why they didn’t get round?
These muffins have become a holiday tradition in my house, but I tend to have problems with them sticking in the pan. I butter and flour the pan as instructed. Any suggestions?
Do you let them fully cool before trying to remove them from the muffin tin? Sometimes running a butter knife around the outside edge helps, too. :)
These are SO GOOD. I already ate two and they’re not even cooled yet. I left the cranberries whole and used 4 tbsp of applesauce in the batter instead of butter, which worked fine. I had the oven at 425 degrees for the first 5 minutes to get the tops all dome-y, and then reduced to 350 for the remaining 25. They probably could have baked for 25 minutes total instead of 30.
Great recipe! So much better than dense, heavy, sugary commercial muffins.
Recipe works well with blueberries too. Omitted orange zest and watered down the juice.
Yield was 6 in Texas size muffin pan. My new go-to!
Thank you, Beth!
Muffin batter turned out great. My only complaint is the streusel has too much flour, mine didnt turn out as the recipe says it should.
Streusel ingredients list does not include 1/4 tsp orange zest. Batter ingredients list does not include 1/2 tsp orange zest and 3/4 cup orange juice.
My family loves these! My nine year old would like to use this recipe to make tiny loaves for Christmas presents. How do you think that would work?
Hey, I was able to muddle through and get some delicious muffins but there are some errors in the ingredients list with the orange zest and juice.
Has anyone tried substituting whole wheat flour?
Raspberries were on sale this week so I swapped them in for the cranberries. It worked – so delicious and such an easy recipe for a beginner baker (like myself).
Anyone use frozen cranberries with these? I really have a hankering for muffins, but frozen is all I have.
I would imagine I need to let them thaw, drain off extra water
In case anyone else is reading and thinking of doing it, using frozen worked out just fine! I let them partially thaw and just dumped out excess water, but even having a few ice crystals on there still didn’t seem to effect the taste or bake time.
I was just wondering if this would work. Thanks!
I buy cranberries on clearance after Thanksgiving and just chuck a few bags in the freezer. I make all kinds of baked goods and chutneys with them. You can add them to muffins, scones, and quick breads frozen. I actually find they do better when added frozen than thawed.
I’ve made these 2x now and plan on making them again. They are so good!
These are incredible! I subbed brown rice flour to make them gluten free and reduced the fat by using 2 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp applesauce in the muffins. They turned out great! They smell like Fruity Pebbles to me, funnily enough, but taste much better!
My daughter made these & they were a huge hit! One of the best muffins that we’ve ever tasted. 👍 Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Yet another A plus recipe. A great way to use the half bag of cranberries left over from Christmas.
A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!!! My husband said “I think these are the best muffins you have ever made”. He’s a foodie and I’m a baker…
Anyone try dried cranberries instead of fresh/frozen? Recommend?
Great Recipe! I made these vegan using a flax egg and margarine. Baked them in my stone muffin pan. Turned out perfect!
Delicious! I’m not sure if my muffin tin is shallower than yours or the butter in my batter got too soft, but the tops of my muffins spread out A LOT instead of making a nice dome. Either way, they still taste great and I was able to use a butter knife to separate the muffin top from the tin without destroying the muffins. Mine took about 30 minutes to bake – I started checking at 20 mins based on other comments, but 30 was good for me. The fresh cranberries add a nice tart zing that you don’t get from dried cranberries. Like other commenters, I used the orange zest from the whole orange because I love zest. I also barely got 3/4 cup juice from TWO oranges! Not sure if my oranges were puny or if I need to get a citrus reamer. Either way, a really yummy recipe.
Yummy as always!! I didn’t have enough all purpose flour so I ended up using 1/2C whole wheat flour and it didn’t seem to affect the end result. I do wish I’d used all my zest, because I ended up throwing out quite a bit and I do think the orange flavour would have come through more. I used paper liners instead of buttering/flouring the tin and they still turned out great! Thanks for another fabulous recipe :)
I successfully cut the sugar in half (used a half cup of sugar in the muffins) and substituted half the flour in the muffins for whole wheat flour (had to add a bit more orange juice since whole wheat flour is a bit dryer). The muffins turned out great. I love the tart cranberries and sweet orange flavor. Thanks for the recipe. I too bought a lot of cranberries for cheap at Aldi.
I baked mine in standard-size muffin tins and they were well-done at 30 min (probably should have checked a little sooner). So maybe adjust the recipe to 20-40 min baking time? Like another commenter, I added all the zest (about 2 T): some to the streusel and some to the batter. I also tried leaving some of the cranberries whole and chopping some (halving them, really). I liked the chopped ones better, since the whole cranberries were a big jolt of tartness in a mouthful.
Finally, I used cupcake liners instead of greasing & flouring the tin: so much easier! Overall, though, so delicious…. Thanks for another great recipe, Beth!
40 minutes is waaaaay too long to bake these muffins… I kept checking them and at 18’ish minutes, they were browning nicely. Kept my eye on them and at the 21 minute mark, I decided to sacrifice one to see if they were baked in the middle. And, yes, they were. I also added 3/4 c. of finely chopped walnuts – perfection! Thanks, Beth – my daughter and I really love your recipes – always tasty, quite simple and very reasonably priced to make.. FYI, bake the mini muffin version for approximately 13 minutes.
Just realized that my muffin tin is undoubtedly smaller than yours because the batter made 10 regular sized muffins and 12 minis. I did use paper liners rather than buttering/flouring the tins. Guess it’s just best to check the muffins as they bake… Thanks again – it’s a wonderful taste of fall. Think I will try your streusel topping, substituting lemon zest for the orange, to top our lemon-blueberry muffins. Thanks again…
I want to see if i can try this recipe with a blood orange
I made these this afternoon. YUMMY! I totally got carried away with zesting the orange and ended up with like 4 tablespoons worth. So I used it all (I hate waste) and they’re delish! Thanks for another winning recipe, Beth!
Ha! I was just commenting to my kids we should bake because there’s snow outside…not a lot, but any snow is a good excuse to bake. And I was just thinking I needed to use up some cranberries I have….and we just so happen to have oranges in the house this week. It’s fate, I tell you.
These look seriously delicious!
I love making muffins but I feel like a muffin isn’t quite a full breakfast on its own and I never know what to serve with them… so far my go-to has been fresh fruit (like apple or pear slices, at this time of year) and a scoop of cottage cheese for protein. Anyway, these sound fabulous!
These look delicious! Re: the “loaded with sugar” issue … years ago, I read a tip that suggested swapping out some of the white sugar in muffin and quick bread recipes with an equal amount of nonfat dry milk powder. It cuts down on the sweetness, adds a bit of protein, and doesn’t change the end product’s texture. I’ve been successful substituting up the half the sugar in a recipe with dry milk powder without sacrificing too much sweet taste.
Oops – that should read ” … up TO half the sugar.”
Very interesting! I’ve never heard of that substitution! Thanks for sharing. :)
Yes loaded with white sugar, you can sub with an alternative healthy sweetener ( which i have and it came out yummy)
I’ve subbed with one of these Sukrin, Xylitol, Natvia and many others are available. Love BUDGETBYTES, great recipes
I had never heard of this till iread this review, but i made some other muffins today and subbed half the white sugar with milk powder and they turned out great and werent too sweet. Thanks for the tip!