Thursday, November 22, 2012

Cranberry-Orange Muffins - revised

I made these muffins last Christmas. I made them again this morning for Thanksgiving dinner. I made a couple changes.

The basic recipe comes from Betty Crocker's Cookbook, New Edition (2005), from their Blueberry Muffins recipe on page 67. I made some substitutions based on a recipe I followed years ago and cannot recall where I got it (maybe an older Betty Crocker Cookbook).

Ingredients

3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped*
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or other nuts, if desired

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners or grease or spray the bottoms of the cups with some kind of shortening.

Mix orange juice, vegetable oil,  egg, and agave nectar well in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until ingredients are moistened. Fold in the remaining ingredients. Divide batter among muffin cups.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins

*I have found a hand cranked nut chopper works quite well for chopping fresh cranberries quickly. While I have left cranberries whole or have cut them in half with no issues, I get more cranberries by chopping them.

This is a most excellent recipe for baking in a toaster oven, baking 6 muffins at a time. I laid out all the paper muffin liners and divided up the batter among the cups to ensure it was distributed evenly before baking.