Cranberry Sauce Muffins
I love cranberries. They’re tart and red and absolutely delicious! Every year when those awesome little red berries show up at supermarkets I buy at least three bags. One to use now and two to use some time later in the year. I just toss the bags in the freezer, that way I can still have cranberries when there aren’t any around. See, I make a lot of stuff with cranberries from sauces to cocktails to my favorite: muffins.
I just can’t get enough of a good cranberry muffin. I like them even more than the classic blueberry. And I’ve made every kind from pumpkin cranberry to apple cranberry. But I’ve never made muffins with cranberry sauce… Until now.
See, like most people, I have tons of leftovers after Thanksgiving, and while I love those huge turkey sandwiches or recreating the previous night’s meal, sometimes I like to take those leftovers and make something new. Something like these cranberry sauce muffins. I know cranberry sauce may seem like a weird ingredient, but it can also be wonderful.
As I said before, I love a good cranberry muffin, especially during this time of year. There’s just one problem with them: you only get that tart cranberry flavor every time you bite into a cranberry. But by using the cranberry sauce, that delicious sweet-tart cranberry permeates through the entire muffin. So, now you not only get more cranberry flavor, you’re using up some of your Thanksgiving leftovers before they go bad… or you’re sick of them.
While these muffins are a great way to take your Thanksgiving feast into the next day, I must admit they’re not all mine. When I thought of the idea of using cranberry sauce as a basis for my favorite kind of muffin, I turned to the internet for inspiration. And I wasn’t the only one. There were several recipes that called for leftover cranberry sauce. But my favorite came from Fox and Briar. Unlike most of the other recipes out there, hers called for a streusal topping which gave the muffins a nice, sweet contrast to the tart berry. They were so good, I’ve added them to my stockpile of muffin recipes. I just can’t wait to make them again… and since I’m pretty sure I’ll always have leftover cranberry sauce, I think these might be the morning after breakfast treat for years to come.
Ingredients
- 2-1/3 cups flour, divided
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup brown sugar, divided
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup cranberry sauce (you could use mine or your own favorite recipe)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of one orange
- 1-1/2 cups cranberries
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup rolled oats
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 380 degrees F. Grease a muffin tin and set aside.
- Whisk together 2 cups of flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl beat together 1/2 a cup of sugar and the eggs. Add the oil, buttermilk, cranberry sauce, vanilla, and orange zest and beat until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Fold in the cranberries.
- Fill the muffin tin with the batter. Fill each muffin cup almost all the way to the top and set aside.
- In a small bowl, using your hands, mix together the butter, remaining flour, remaining cinnamon and oats until combined. Sprinkle this mixture over each muffin.
- Put the muffins in the oven and raise the temperature to 400 degrees. The reason for this is that they will get a burst of hot air which helps them to rise and get more of a dome top. (Thank you Fox and Briar.)
- Bake 15 - 17 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes, then finish cooling on a wire rack and serve.
