Cranberry-Orange with Coconut Muffins

by Cristina on 4 November 2010 · 31 comments

in Breads & Quick Breads,Breakfast & Brunch,Muffin Madness

Cranberry-Orange with Coconut Muffins

I do enjoy muffins with fruits and nuts. The Carrot-Oat Spice Muffins I made a couple of weeks ago and several varieties of the banana muffins I’ve shared are my favorite. Cranberries are in season right now and truth be told, I haven’t made many things with cranberries before. I’m quite excited to use them this season, as they have a mouth-puckering tartness about them. Health benefits include:

Contains moderate levels of vitamin C
Has dietary fiber
Also has manganese, an essential dietary mineral

Also, cranberries freeze very well. While they’re in season, buy them at good sale prices and transfer them to airtight freezer bags to store in your freezer (squeeze the air out of the bag before sealing). Label the bag with the date you’ve added them to the freezer and they should keep for about a year. Next spring/summer when you’re wishing cranberries were season, you just have to reach into your freezer and pat yourself on the back that you thought ahead and just saved yourself time and energy looking for fresh ones and avoided spending a fortune on a small bag of unseasonal cranberries.

This recipe is modified from one of my favorite collection of cookbooks by Williams Sonoma. The orange zest and juice help offset the tartness of these beautiful red berries through this quick bread. I’ve added a couple tablespoons of shredded coconut along with sprinkling some raw sugar on the muffin tops for texture and additional slight sweetness to the crowns. I’ve used 1% low-fat milk for this recipe and it turned out well. A tasty sweet-and-tart seasonal, morning treat that’s a perfect pairing with your warm beverage or icy cold glass of milk.

Teenie Notes

Used 1% low-fat milk.
Added 2 tablespoons shredded coconut.
Increased walnuts to 3/4 cup.
Sprinkled the tops of each muffin with raw sugar for texture and additional slight sweetness.
If you have whole wheat flour, substituting one cup of flour for whole wheat flour would be a healthful change.
Enjoy using cranberries throughout the year? Read my tip above about storing cranberries in the freezer.

Cranberry-Orange with Coconut Muffins

source modified from Muffins – The Williams Sonoma Collection

Makes 10 Muffins

Orange Zest - Microplane Zester

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons coconut, shredded
Grated zest of 1 large orange

1 large egg
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/2 cup strained fresh orange juice
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries or frozen, unthawed
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Raw sugar for sprinkling on each muffin (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin pan with nonstick spray.

In a medium sized bowl, stir together flour, granulated sugar, brown sguar, baking powder, salt, coconut and zest.

In another bowl, whisk the egg, melted butter, milk, and orange juice until blended. Add the dry ingredients until combined. The batter may be slightly lumpy. Gently fold in the cranberries and nuts until evenly distributed throughout batter. Do not over mix.

Using a large spoon or large size cookie scoop, distribute the batter to 10 muffin wells. Batter should be at muffin well rim. Optional: Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with raw sugar.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden. Insert a toothpick into the middle of a muffin to test it comes out clean. Transfer muffin pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan.

Serve warm or room temperature. Optionally add a dollop of whipped cream or butter to each muffin when serving.

Cranberry-Orange with Coconut Muffins