These easy fresh cranberry muffins are fluffy, tart, and dotted with bright red chunks of cranberries that make them as pretty as they are delicious. They come together quickly and easily for a simple treat to serve at breakfast or brunch. Their moistness means they will keep for a few days as well, meaning you can bake ahead a bit.
Fresh cranberries have a short season, so when they show up at the market this recipe is worth keeping close. It comes together in about 35 minutes and uses simple pantry ingredients you likely already have on hand.
Simple Ingredients
Muffins should be uncomplicated in my opinion and these are indeed that. As long as you have the cranberries, the rest of the ingredients are simple pantry staples.
Flour
I used basic all-purpose flour for ease, but you could substitute some whole wheat flour or even spelt flour for a more whole grain muffin, if desired. The resulting muffins may turn out less moist but still tasty.
Buttermilk
Buttermilk adds great flavor to muffins. You can use regular milk or even sour milk with vinegar if you don’t have buttermilk on hand. The powedered milk will also work, just follow the directions on the can for adding it to recipes.
Melted Butter
You could use vegetable oil or melted coconut oil instead of butter, if desired.
Cranberries
The recipe was tested with fresh cranberries. Frozen cranberries that have been thawed enought to chop might also work but I can’t guarantee results. Fresh cranberries are tart and hold their shape well in the batter, which gives you those bright pockets of flavor in every bite.
I have a different recipe for dried cranberry muffins, if you prefer using something dehydrated.
Optional Additions
The recipe as written is quite tasty, but you have some options for switching it up if you desire:
- Add a Tablespoon or two of grated orange zest to the batter for cranberry orange muffins
- Stir in up to 1 cup of chocolate chips into the batter for a bit more of a treat
- Drizzle an orange glaze over the top of cooled muffins for a sweeter treat
How to Serve
Like all muffins, there’s no reason to get fancy here. Serve at breakfast with a hot beverage and perhaps some eggs or fruit.
Tuck into lunch boxes for an afternoon treat.
Add the muffins to brunch buffets for easy holiday weekends.
How to Store
Place the baked and cooled muffins into airtight containers where they should stay fresh for up to 5 days at room temperature.
For longer term storage, put the cooled muffins into plastic bags and freeze. Let frozen muffins thaw on the counter before serving. Use up any frozen muffins within 6 months for best flavor.
Troubleshooting
The muffins turned out dense. This usually means the batter was overmixed. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined and don’t worry about lumps. A lumpy batter is perfectly fine here.
The cranberries are too tart. The sugar coating in step two helps tame the tartness, but cranberries are naturally quite sour. If you want a sweeter muffin, increase the cranberry sugar from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup.
The muffins are dry. Check your bake time. At 400 degrees these bake quickly and can dry out if left too long. Start checking at 15 minutes. The edges should be golden and a tester should come out clean but not bone dry.
The bottoms are sticking to the pan. Make sure to grease the muffin tin well, or use paper liners. Let the pan cool on a rack for the full 5 minutes before trying to remove the muffins.
Fresh Cranberry Muffins
Fluffy and tart, these easy fresh cranberry muffins come together in about 35 minutes with simple pantry ingredients. A simple buttermilk muffin that is perfect for holiday breakfasts, brunch, or baking ahead.
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Fresh Cranberries, roughly chopped
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 2 Cups Unbleached, All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 Cup Buttermilk
- 1/4 Cup Butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a muffin tin.
- In a small bowl, combine the chopped cranberries with 1/2 cup sugar. Tossing to coat. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 Tablespoons of sugar.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, buttermilk, and egg until completely mixed.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until almost combined.
- Add the sugar coated cranberries, scraping all sugar into the batter. Stir until combined, it is okay if the batter is a bit lumpy.
- Divide the muffin batter amongst the 12 muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and an inserted tester comes out clean.
- Let pan cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool completely on cooling rack.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 169Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 26mgSodium: 286mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 1gSugar: 12gProtein: 3g
I try but cannot guarantee this nutritional information is 100% accurate.
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