Festive cranberry orange muffins feature cranberries, fresh orange juice, and a touch of orange zest. An orange glaze adds even more orange flavor! I love using fresh cranberries when they’re easily available at the grocery store. But frozen cranberries can work when they’re not in season. 

Best Cranberry Orange Muffins Recipe

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: cranberries are the underdog of the holiday season! But not in our house – and definitely not on this website! This year we’re baking cranberry orange scones, cranberry hand pies, cranberry crumb bars… and cranberry orange muffins!!! Here’s why these are the best: 

• Orange zest, orange juice, and an orange glaze = tons of orange flavor. 
• You can make these muffins with fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries. 
• Super moist, the muffin tops rise up over the muffin pan, creating a huge muffin top! 
• The perfect festive treat for breakfast or brunch! They basically fly out of the muffin tin. 
• Freezer friendly, these cranberry orange muffins will keep stored in the freezer for 2 months.

Bakery-Style Cranberry Orange Muffins: Ingredients 

• All-Purpose Flour: I don’t suggest using any other variety of flour. But some readers have reported good results with a 1 for 1 GF flour substitute. For best results, weigh your flour instead of using a measuring cup. 
• Baking Powder: Make sure you use baking powder, not baking soda, and that it’s fresh. Baking soda will cause the muffins to spread, which is not what we want. Baking powder will lift the muffins, giving them that coveted muffin top. 
• Salt: Balances the sweetness in these muffins while enhancing the orange flavor and spices. 
• Spices: A touch of nutmeg, cardamon, and cinnamon add great flavor to these cranberry orange muffins. 
• Butter: Unsalted butter works best, but in a pinch you can use salted butter. 
• Sugar: The recipe uses granulated sugar and brown sugar in the muffin batter. You’ll also need confectioners’ sugar for the orange glaze. 
• Eggs: Use large eggs that have come to room temperature. I don’t recommend making this recipe without eggs.
• Vanilla Extract: Use pure vanilla extract, never artificial vanilla, which tastes awful.
• Sour Cream: If you can’t find sour cream, full-fat plain Greek yogurt is a great substitution. 
• Orange Juice: I prefer freshly squeezed orange juice because it has great orange flavor. But in a pinch, any orange juice will work. 
• Orange Zest: You’ll need a citrus zester to get the finely grated orange zest used in this recipe. 
• Cranberries: More on this below, but you can use fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries. You can even technically use dried cranberries (although I don’t recommend it). 
• Sparkling Sugar: This is a totally optional ingredient, but it does make the muffins look stunning. Once you divide the batter in the muffin pan, you’ll sprinkle the muffin tops with the sugar, then bake. 

How to Make Cranberry Orange Muffins

1. Prepare the Muffin Pan: Preheat your oven. Next, line a muffin tin with paper baking cups. Spray the spray the muffin pan and liners with non-stick baking spray. This ensures your muffins will come out of the muffin pan effortlessly. 
2. Make the Batter: You’ll need an electric mixer to whip the butter, sugars, and orange zest until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs and vanilla extract. Then you’ll alternate adding in your dry ingredients. Finally, gently fold in the cranberries.
3. Bake the Muffins: Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle with sparkling sugar then bake in preheated oven. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
4. Cool the Muffins: Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack for at least 20 minutes before serving. But I don’t blame you if you dig right in and get down on a hot muffin. 

This post may contain affiliate links! Jump to the recipe for the full instructions! 

Fresh Cranberries vs Frozen Cranberries 

• Fresh cranberries are delicious and work great in baked goods! Farmers harvest fresh cranberries in the fall, making them seasonal. So you won’t be able to find fresh cranberries year-round. 
• Frozen cranberries are easy to find year-round, but can leave a slight pink color in baked goods. This is the only disadvantage to using them over fresh cranberries. 
• If you use frozen cranberries, don’t thaw them first. Add them to the batter frozen. This will help prevent “color streaking”. 

Can I Use Dried Cranberries?

Technically speaking, yes, you can use dried cranberries. However, if you read the comment section, you may see I don’t suggest it. Here’s why: 

• Dried cranberries often have added sugar, which covers the cranberry taste.
• Dried cranberries won’t give you the large juicy pockets of cranberries you see in my photos. 
• Dried cranberries add a chewy texture the muffins, which I don’t find appealing. 

So, You still want to use Dried Cranberries? 

1. I suggest rehydrating them first. Place them in water or orange juice (for extra orange flavor). Let them soak for an hour then drain them before adding them to the batter; this will plump them up. 
2. Use 3/4 cup to 1 cup of dried cranberries. 2 cups of dried cranberries will overwhelm the muffin batter.

How Long do Orange Cranberry Muffins Last?

If you can, eat these cranberry orange muffins on the day they’re bake them! But what if you have leftovers? 

• Leftover cranberry orange muffins will keep, wrapped tightly in saran wrap, and stored at room temperature, for up to 3 days. 
• If you’d like to keep them longer, place them in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight on the counter before use. 
• To reheat, you can place them in the microwave or in a toaster oven. They’re also delicious with a slather of butter and a drizzle of honey!

Get the Best Orange Flavor 

You can technically use store-bought orange juice… but why would you? You’ll need fresh oranges to get the orange zest. So you might as well juice those oranges and have freshly squeezed orange juice. It’ll add the best orange flavor.

For even more orange flavor, you can add a small amount of orange extract. This is an optional ingredient, but will add a punch of orange flavor you won’t get without it. 

More Cranberry Recipes:

• Cranberry Orange Cake
• Cranberry Banana Muffins
• Easy Apple Cranberry Crisp
• White Chocolate Cranberry Bundt Cake
• Cranberry Eggnog Muffins

Cranberry Orange Muffins (Bakery-Style)

Ashley Manila

Festive cranberry orange muffins feature cranberries, fresh orange juice, and a touch of orange zest. An orange glaze adds even more orange flavor! I love using fresh cranberries when they're easily available at the grocery store. But frozen cranberries can work when they're not in season.

4.99 from 52 votes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 27 minutes mins

Inactive Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 57 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine American, Baking, Muffins

Servings 12 Muffins

Ingredients

 

For the Cranberry Orange Muffins:

• 3 cups (360g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon (14g) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butte room temperature
• 1 cup (199g) granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup (71g) light brown sugar packed
• 1 Tablespoon orange zest finely grated
• 3 large eggs room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract optional
• 1 cup (227g) full-fat sour cream room temperature
• 1/3 cup (76ml) orange juice
• 2 cups cranberries fresh or frozen; if using frozen, do NOT thaw

For the Orange Glaze (Optional):

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice more if needed
• 1 teaspoon orange zest, finely grated

Instructions

 

For the Cranberry Orange Muffins:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F). Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and spray lightly with non-stick baking spray. Set aside until needed. 
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom; set aside.
• In a separate large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugars, orange zest, vanilla extract, and orange extract. And beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. 
• Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
• Turn mixer off and set batter aside for a moment. In a spouted bowl or measuring cup, add the sour cream and orange juice and whisk well to combine. 
• With the mixer speed on low, alternate adding the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Be sure not to over mix here. Fold the cranberries into the batter, mixing just until evenly combined.
• Divide the batter evenly among prepared muffin tins.
• Bake for 25 to 27 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, or with a just a few moist crumbs attached. Cool muffins 10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a cooling rack.

For the Orange Glaze:

• In a medium mixing bowl combine the confectioners' sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. Whisk until smooth, adding more orange juice as needed to reach desired consistency. Drizzle over the muffins right before serving.

Keyword cranberry orange muffins, cranberry, cranberry recipes, Thanksgiving recipes, muffins, Christmas recipes

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