Easy cranberry muffins made with fresh tangy cranberries, studded with white chocolate chunks, and flavoured with citrusy clementine zest.
Perfect for a festive afternoon tea, or why not serve them for Christmas Day breakfast?
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Fluffy, moist, and bursting with flavour, these simple cranberry muffins use my failsafe basic muffin recipe as the base! They quite literally NEVER FAIL to deliver!
I particularly love the contrast between the tart fresh cranberries (you can use frozen cranberries too), sweet white chocolate, and zesty clementine! It's a flavour match made in heaven!
👩🍳 Love muffins? Try my cinnamon apple muffins too!
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✔️ Why you'll love this recipe!
Here's why this is the best cranberry muffin recipe!
- Quick and easy to make.
- Use fresh or frozen cranberries.
- Sweet white chocolate drizzle makes them look pretty.
- Perfect for Christmas morning breakfast.
- Freezer-friendly.
🛒 Ingredients
- Cranberries - fresh or frozen. There is no need to defrost frozen cranberries first.
- White Chocolate - chunks or chips for the muffin batter and melted white chocolate for the drizzle icing.
- Clementine Zest - can be substituted for orange zest.
- Dry Ingredients - Plain Flour, Bicarbonate of Soda, Caster Sugar.
- Wet Ingredients - Melted Butter, Eggs, Natural Yogurt.
🔪 Instructions
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
Step 1: Place the dry ingredients into a bowl.
Step 2: Gently mix in the wet ingredients, being careful not to over mix.
Step 3: Fold through the cranberries, white chocolate chunks and clementine zest.
Step 4: Spoon the batter equally between 12 muffin cases, placed in a muffin tin.
Step 5: Bake for 16-18 minutes.
Step 6: Once cooled, drizzle with melted white chocolate.
💭 Top tips
- Thoroughly wash fresh cranberries to remove any dirt and grit. The best way to do this is to place the cranberries in a colander under cold running water.
- Don't overmix your muffin batter. Overmixing results in tough, chewy muffins.
🍴 Serving suggestions
Serve the cranberry muffins at festive buffets and afternoon tea (alongside my chocolate orange tiffin and mincemeat blondies). They also make a delicious Christmas morning breakfast, with these fruity Christmas bagels!
📖 Variations
- Cranberry Orange Muffins. Swap the clementine zest for orange zest. Lemon would also work well.
- Cranberry Walnut Muffins. Add a handful of walnuts for crunch and texture.
- Cranberry Apple Muffins. Swap half the cranberries for some peeled and chopped apples for cranberry apple muffins!
- Make 24 mini muffins instead of 12 regular size muffins. Reduce the cooking time to 14 minutes.
- Add a teaspoon of cinnamon for a lovely warming flavour.
- Make them even healthier and add a handful of oats to the mixture.
- Swap the white chocolate chips for milk chocolate chips.
🥡 Storage
- To Store. Place the cooled cranberry muffins into an airtight container or cake tin. They will keep fresh for up to 3 days.
- To Freeze. Place in a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature before serving.
❓ FAQs
Dried cranberries are much sweeter than fresh or frozen cranberries so the muffins will turn out much sweeter in taste. If using dried cranberries I suggest using just 150g and add in a peeled chopped apple.
It's best to use frozen cranberries straight from the freezer. If you allow them to defrost they will become quite watery and will make your muffin batter too thin and runny.
Yes, just place the fresh cranberries in a freezer bag and place them in your freezer.
😋 More muffin recipes to try!
Recipe
Easy Cranberry Muffins
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Equipment
- 12 Hole Muffin Tin
Ingredients
- 200 g Plain Flour
- 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
- 140 g Caster Sugar
- 100 ml Natural Yogurt
- 2 Eggs
- 140 g Butter melted
- 175 g Cranberries fresh or frozen
- 100 g White Chocolate Chips
- 1 Clementine zest only
- 50 g White Chocolate melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190°c (170 fan/ Gas 5/ 375F). Put 12 muffin cases into a 12 hole muffin tin.
- Put the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, and caster sugar into a mixing bowl.
- In another bowl whisk together the yogurt, eggs, and cooled melted butter.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix. Be careful not to overmix.
- Fold through the cranberries, white chocolate chips, and clementine zest.
- Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 18 minutes until well risen and golden.
- Allow to cool then drizzle with melted white chocolate.
Notes
- Thoroughly wash fresh cranberries to remove any dirt and grit. The best way to do this is to place the cranberries in a colander under cold running water.
- Don't overmix your muffin batter. Overmixing results in tough, chewy muffins.
- Cranberry Orange Muffins. Swap the clementine zest for orange zest. Lemon would also work well.
- Cranberry Walnut Muffins. Add a handful of walnuts for crunch and texture.
- Cranberry Apple Muffins. Swap half the cranberries for some peeled and chopped apples for cranberry apple muffins!
- Make 24 mini muffins instead of 12 regular size muffins. Reduce the cooking time to 14 minutes.
- Add a teaspoon of cinnamon for a lovely warming flavour.
- Make them even healthier and add a handful of oats to the mixture.
- Swap the white chocolate chips for milk chocolate chips.
- To Store. Place the cooled cranberry muffins into an airtight container or cake tin. They will keep fresh for up to 3 days.
- To Freeze. Place in a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature before serving.
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Danielle Wolter
These look amazing! They would make the perfect christmas morning breakfast - easy to make ahead.
Natalie
Beautiful muffins. The texture is so soft and perfect. I bet these muffins are amazing with a cup of tea. I'm baking them today. Thanks!
Jessica Stroup
These were fantastic! So fluffy and delicious!
Katherine
Mmmm the flavors of fall! These muffins sound incredible, particularly with the white chocolate.
veenaazmanov
This is so perfect for the Tea Time Treat. Cranberry sounds so tempting and this looks too yum.