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These homemade Cranberry Muffins are fluffy and moist with the perfect balance of sweet and tart flavors. They make a delicious breakfast, snack or dessert.
Cranberry Muffins are a must-try, especially around the winter holidays. They are great for a quick on-the-go breakfast, perfect for Christmas morning, and they freeze beautifully if you happen to have any leftover.
Be sure to try my Cranberry Bliss Bars next!
Table of Contents
Why We Love This Recipe
My kids are huge fans of all kinds of muffins, especially Sour Cream Banana Muffins and Lemon Blueberry Muffins. They’re perfect for snacking or packing in lunches. But it’s officially cranberry season and these Cranberry Muffins are bringing all the cozy, homey, holiday-feels.
Quick breads and muffins are great for this time of year. They come together fast, the flavor possibilities are endless, and they are perfect alongside a cup of hot coffee or tea.
Pumpkin Apple Bread and Banana Nut Bread are two of our favorite quick breads, and now these Cranberry Muffins are on frequent rotation, too.
How to Make Cranberry Muffins
These muffins are flavored with almond extract, studded with tart cranberries, sprinkled with coarse sugar, and drizzled with a powdered sugar glaze. They bake up moist, tender and perfectly sweet. Here’s how to make them:
Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt) in a large mixing bowl, then combine the wet ingredients (buttermilk, oil, eggs, and almond extract) in another bowl.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then stir in the cranberries.
Divide the batter between 12 standard muffin cups and sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar. Bake as directed and let cool before drizzle with a quick glaze made from powdered sugar, milk and almond extract.
No Buttermilk? No Problem!
Buttermilk helps to make these muffins light and tender. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make a buttermilk substitute with milk and something acidic, like lemon juice or vinegar. Check out my post on How to Make Buttermilk.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Frozen cranberries are easy to use in place of fresh cranberries. If you’d prefer to use frozen cranberries, keep them frozen and stir them into the batter straight from the freezer. Note: You might need to increase your bake time a minute or two.
If you want to make this recipe year-round, look for frozen cranberries in the freezer section of your grocery store, or stock up during fall and winter months and freeze them yourself.
Dried cranberries are a great addition to baked goods and you can absolutely use them as a substitute for frozen. You’ll want to reduce the amount by about a third. This recipe calls for 1 ½ cups of fresh cranberries, so you’ll only need 1 cup of dried.
Like any bread, muffins will dry out quickly if refrigerated. Keep muffins fresh by storing them in a sealed plastic bag or airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Allow muffins to cool completely before storing.
Cool completely, then place in plastic freezer bags. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. If you need to keep them longer than that, wrap them individually in plastic wrap to keep them safe from freezer burn.
Expert Tips
- I love the combination of almond and cranberries together, so these muffins have a fairly prominent almond flavor. If you’d prefer the traditional orange-cranberry flavor combination, you can swap the almond extract for vanilla extract and add the finely grated zest of one large orange right into the batter.
- Be careful not to overmix the batter, or your muffins will be dense. Combine the wet and dry ingredients just until the flour has disappeared. The batter will be lumpy, and that’s ok!
- Use an ice cream scoop to portion out the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
- Make sure to line or grease the pan. You can use paper cupcake liners, but I prefer to just grease the cups with cooking spray.
More Muffins and Quick Bread Recipes
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Zucchini Carrot Oatmeal Muffins
- Starbucks Copycat Lemon Loaf
- Apple Bread
- Banana Nut Muffins
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Cranberry Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
- 1 ½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries
- 3 tablespoons sparkling sugar or coarse/raw sugar
Icing:
- 5 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon milk
- Drop of almond extract
Instructions
Muffins
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, granulated sugar, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, oil, eggs, and almond extract.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until mostly combined. Add cranberries and stir until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Grease 12 standard muffin cups or line with paper liners. Divide the batter between the 12 cups, filling each about ¾ full. Sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then carefully remove each muffin and place directly on the rack to cool completely.
Icing
- Whisk all ingredients until smooth. If necessary, add more powdered sugar to thicken, or more milk to thin. Drizzle the icing on the cooled muffins.
Notes
- If you don’t have almond extract, you can substitute with vanilla.
- For an orange-cranberry flavor combination, you can swap the almond extract for vanilla extract and add the finely grated zest of one large orange to the batter.
- Be careful not to overmix the batter, or your muffins will be dense. Combine the wet and dry ingredients just until the flour has disappeared. The batter will not be completely smooth.
- Use an ice cream scoop to portion out the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
I’m 14 and I just made these muffins. They are so delicious and my family loved them!
Nice! Thank you so much Riley for taking the time to share.
Excellent recipe! I had to substitute oil with 4oz melted butter since I was out, but it was exactly what I was looking for; a way to get rid of my extra buttermilk and utilize my cranberries. I will use this recipe again. Thank you!
You are so welcome Julie! Thank you for the awesome feedback.
Can you use dried cranberries and put in a little water to plump them. Can’t find frozen or fresh ones
You can use dried cranberries. I’d recommend using about 1 cup.
Thank uou.