These dried cranberry muffins with pecans make a perfect festive season breakfast or snack. Lightly spiced and with a hint of orange they are easy to make and delicious!
Today I am posting a simple recipe for dried cranberry muffins with a festive touch. These lightly spiced cranberry orange muffins make a fantastic breakfast idea for the holiday season. They are super quick and easy to make and are a great way of using up extra cranberries left over from making Christmas stuffing, festive roasted brussels sprouts and braised red cabbage.
If you love easy festive baking you might also like this gingerbread muffins recipe.
Dried cranberry muffins ingredients
These muffins are sweetened with cranberries and a moderate amount of sugar. I flavoured them with a combination of cinnamon, ginger and orange zest and added a handful of pecans for texture.
Step-by-step recipe instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F/200 C/180 fan/gas mark 6 and line the muffin pan with 12 paper cases (or lightly grease if using a non-stick pan).
2. Prepare dry mixture: Using a whisk stir together the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon.
3. Prepare wet mixture: Whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, yogurt and milk until smooth. Stir in the dried cranberries, pecans and orange zest.
4. Assemble: Gradually pour in the dry mixture (in 3 goes) and using a whisk stir just to combine. Do not overstir.
5. Bake: Spoon the batter into the muffin cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 12 minutes. Lower the temperature to 375 F/190 C/170 fan/gas mark 5 and continue baking for 7-8 more minutes (until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean).
6. Cool: Remove from the oven and leave in the pan to cool.
7. Make the orange glaze by stirring the icing sugar and orange juice until smooth and drizzling over the top of the muffins. Sprinkle with more orange zest if you like and enjoy!
You might also like persimmon bread recipe which comes with a similar icing drizzle.
Top tips
- Substitutions: Use any nuts you like, not necessarily pecans. You could also use lemon zest instead of orange zest if you prefer.
- Spices: I used a combination of cinnamon and ginger but you could use either one or the other or use mixed spice/pumpkin spice instead. You could also omit these spices altogether and just add a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste (or extract) into the muffin batter.
- Batter: The batter should be lumpy. Stop stirring as soon as the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
- Serving: Delicious served either cold or a little warm. Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
More dried cranberry recipes
- Rooibos Infused Cranberry Loaf
- Healthy Fruit Cake Tray Bake with Nuts
- Quick Vegetarian Christmas Stuffing
- Ground Turkey Stuffing Balls with Cranberries & Chestnuts
- Marinated Red Cabbage Sprouts Slaw Recipe (Christmas)
See also these other easy, delicious breakfast recipes.
Keep in touch!
If you make these cranberry orange muffins I'd love to know how they turned out for you. Did you use different spices or nuts? Let me know in the comments below, thanks!
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for regular recipe updates! Or you could subscribe to this blog and receive all my latest recipes right into your mailbox!
Recipe
Dried Cranberry Muffins with Pecans
Equipment
- 12-hole muffin pan
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (100 g) dried sweetened cranberries
- 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose/plain flour
- 1 cup (125 g) whole wheat/wholemeal flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon and ginger each
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- ⅔ cup (160 g) natural yogurt at room temperature
- ½ cup (120 ml) milk at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) vegetable oil
- ½ cup less 1½tbsp (90 g) packed light brown sugar
- Zest of 1 orange
- ½ cup (70 g) pecans chopped
Orange drizzle (*optional)
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 3-4 tablespoons powdered sugar/icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F/200 C/180 fan/gas mark 6 and line the muffin pan with 12 paper cases (or lightly grease if using a non-stick pan).
- Prepare dry mixture: Using a whisk stir together the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon.
- Prepare wet mixture: Whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, yogurt, milk and orange zest until smooth.
- Add cranberries: Stir in the dried cranberries and pecans.
- Assemble: Gradually pour in the dry mixture (in 3 goes) and using a whisk stir just to combine. Do not overstir.
- Bake: Spoon the batter into the muffin cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 12 minutes. Lower the temperature to 375 F/190 C/170 fan/gas mark 5 and continue baking for 7-8 more minutes (until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean).
- Cool: Remove from the oven and leave in the pan to cool.
- *Optional. Make the orange glaze by stirring the icing sugar and orange juice until smooth and drizzling over the top of the muffins. Sprinkle with more orange zest if you like and enjoy!
Notes
- Substitutions: Use any nuts you like, not necessarily pecans. You could also use lemon zest instead of orange zest if you prefer.
- Spices: I used a combination of cinnamon and ginger but you could use either one or the other or use mixed spice/pumpkin spice instead. You could also omit these spices altogether and just add a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste (or extract) into the muffin batter.
- Batter: The batter should be lumpy. Stop stirring as soon as the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
- Serving: Delicious served either cold or a little warm. Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is automatically generated and should be considered as an estimate.
**A note about baking: If using a fan-assisted oven refer to your appliance's instructions and adjust the temperature accordingly.
Geraldine Orman says
This is now my go to muffin recipe. The important thing is that you give both weight and cup measurements. I feel safer with weight. Perfect every time except the last batch when I forgot to turn the oven down from 7 to five and they got a bit dry and singed. Still edible though. You also encourage experimentation so being short on pecans added some walnuts. Then I went a little mad and added a teaspoon of orange juice and a quarter teaspoon of bicarbonate with the baking powder plus orange peel and some glacé cherries cut up small. These are now my tutti fruit is for Halloween. Little yellow icing and these will pass as “snot” cakes. for Halloween. Thank you so much for this lovely versatile recipe.
Monika says
Thank you! I am glad you are finding these muffins so versatile. Your Halloween twist on this recipe sounds fantastic!
Kat says
They look so delicious and what a great healthy alternative at Christmas!
Monika says
Thank you!
Monika says
Thanks Angela!
Eb Gargano says
What a lovely way to use up leftover cranberries...of which I seem to have mountains, thanks to all my various cranberry recipe inventions this year!
Monika says
Thank you:)