I have used a lot of dried cranberries while baking but am picky about the fresh ones. So far I have tried only one recipe using fresh cranberries. It is this cranberry bars recipe from the Joy of Baking website. Although it did come out well and tasted good, somehow I did not develop a liking for this beautiful red fruit. I think part of the reason is my quirky food likings. I usually don't like sweet and sour or sweet and spicy together.
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A dish has to be either fully sweet or fully spicy. So its obvious that I do not like the combination of tart cranberries and sweet in baked goods. Anyhow I decided to give it a shot once again this cranberry season.
Lately I have been seeing a lot of Indianized cranberry recipes. Cranberry rice, cranberry pickle, cranberry dal, etc. just to mention a few. So I decided to try at least that if at all not baking with cranberries. Recently I also got hooked to the Taste of Home website.
I have got a baking book published by that magazine and am a fan for those recipes. I have had a 100% success rate with those recipes. I don't know what stopped me from visiting their website all these days. A couple of days back I borrowed a Taste of Home Cookies book from the library. It has 623 recipes and I was so tempted to get one for myself. That's when I decided to check out their website to see if they have free recipes online and I was overjoyed to find the same.
I looked for some cranberry recipes in there and bookmarked this cranberry muffins recipe. It was a simple straight forward recipe and the egg substitution was easy too. I decided to use flax seed meal as the egg substitute like I used for the vegan cranberry quick bread recipe and it turned out great.
For the past couple of months I have been incorporating a lot of whole grains and whole grain flours while baking. So I decided to used plain all purpose flour this time. Partly the reason being, my phobia for cranberries.
Since I was not sure if I would like cranberries I didn't want to use whole wheat flour and mess it up further. Surprisingly these cranberry muffins did not fail me. It tasted pretty good with mild sweetness, occasional tartness from the cranberries here and there and a nice crunch from the pecans. I would definitely try this recipe again but would increase the quantity of sugar a little bit.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
- Brown Sugar - ¾th to 1 cup
- Baking Powder - 2 teaspoons
- Chopped Pecans - 1 cup
Wet Ingredients:
- Canola Oil - ⅓ cup
- Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice - ⅔ cup
- Flax Egg - 1 count
- Orange Zest from 1 Orange.
- Coarsely Chopped Fresh Cranberries - 1 cup
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Recipe
Vegan Orange Cranberry Muffins
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- ¾th to 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 cup Pecans Chopped
Wet Ingredients:
- ⅓ cup Canola Oil
- ⅔ cup Orange Juice Freshly Squeezed
- 1 count Flax Egg
- 1 tablespoon Orange Zest From 1 orange
- 1 cup Fresh Cranberries Coarsely Chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 375F/190C for 15 minutes. Grease or line a muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients and keep it aside.
- Whisk together the flaxseed meal and warm water and set it aside for it to turn gooey. Or if you have a mini blender jar (like that of Magic Bullet) you can blend the flaxseed meal and water until it's nice and frothy.
- Measure orange juice in a liquid measuring mug, add water until you reach 1 cup measure in the mug. To this also add the oil, flax seed mixture, orange zest and stir together well.
- Pour the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture and mix until just moistened. Fold in the cranberries too. Do not overmix.
- Spoon in the batter in the greased muffin tins. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Move the muffin tin to a cooling rack and let it cool for just 5 minutes. Then remove the muffins from the pan and cool it completely on a wire rack.
My Notes
- The quantity of sugar mentioned in the original recipe was ¾th cup and I used the same, but felt that the muffins could have been a little more sweet. So you can increase the quantity to 1 cup.
- I always prefer freshly squeezed orange juice in baking recipes. I have found out in my experience that the store bought orange juice is slightly bitter and the bitterness reflects in the baked goods too.
- If you wish to use frozen cranberries, do not thaw it. Use it directly from the freezer otherwise the berries will start bleeding turning the batter red.
Nutrition
SY says
Your muffins look great and tasty. If I want to use EnerG instead of flax seed powder, how much should I use?
SY, I have never used Ener-G in muffins, so I'm not sure how it would come out. I'm very comfortable with using it in cookies but haven't tried in anything else other than 1 cake recipe if I remember right. I have heard a lot that it does not work well in brownies. So think twice before you use it. I have substituted flax seed powder for 2 eggs called for in the original recipe. So it would be 3 teaspoons of Ener-G and 4 tablespoons of water blended until its frothy. Or else why don't you try 1/3 cup of yogurt and little water to get the consistency of the batter right.
ACsVeganMom says
Hi Madhuram,
You have a wonderful blog with great recipes! In this recipe I want to make sure its 2 TSP flaxseed and not 2 TBSP? I forgot the oil but the muffins seemed denser that I would expect/like. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Thanks. It is 2 teaspoons. Maybe the absence of oil has made it dense, its about 1/3 rd of a cup which is definitely huge to alter the texture of the muffins.
Kelly says
I just made these and they were delicious! I hope you don't mind if I blogged about them and linked back to you. Please let me know if thats a problem. But I loved them and they were my first experiment with vegan baking. I'm so impressed!
No problem Kelly. You can blog about it and thank you very much for trying the recipe.
sahrul says
I try now..............thanks for your recipe.........
Milee says
hi Dear
Tomorrow will try the receipe. and frankly m very eager to have it, u know my mouth is wateringgggggggg i know it would be yummyy.
Lisa says
Tried this with some variants and my daughter's reaction "Whoa, that muffin's good"
So what did we do?
~ Used a multigrain/baking flour mix
~ Only used 3/4 cup sugar
~ Omitted nuts so that the kids could bring these to school
~ Forgot the oil
~ Replaced the cranberries with the frozen raspberries we had on hand
~ Replaced flax powder for the chia powder (Salba brand) we had on hand
~ Opted for lemon zest instead
Admittedly, I completely forgot the oil but the recipe is no worse for the wear. Perhaps I'll make this the next time 'round with a light tasting extra virgin olive oil.
It's a great addition to a tea break or spring brunch! And it presents so well what with all the color!
Thanks!
You're welcome Lisa. I'm enjoying the fact that it turned out good even after you forgot the oil.
Malini says
Madhuram,
I tried the muffins last night and they came out a little hard and stuck to the liners. I did spray the liners with cooking spray. Also despite the 1 cup brown sugar they tasted a little more tangy than sweet. Where did I go wrong? The muffins were not soft at all and looked a little undercooked.
wondering if it was the baking soda or the flax seed.
I'm wondering too Malini! Did you use baking soda or powder, because I have mentioned BP and you have written BS in the comment?
Mindy says
Hi Madhu,
I'd love to try this recipe for the brunch I'm going to host but I can't find flaxseed powder in Caracas. Can I skip it?
Thanks for your reply.
//mindy
Mindy, I'm sorry that I couldn't get back to you any sooner. I think 1/2 cup of yogurt/buttermilk should work as well.
BB says
Very excited to try your recipes.Especially because they are egg-less and it makes me very happy some one coming up with such fabulous recipes without eggs.Thanks for sharing.
Welcome to my blog BB.
Yamini says
Hi Madhuram,
The muffins look yummy and i am very tempted to try them out. One question though - i dont get fresh cranberries (at least i havent seen any) where i live. Would it be ok if dried cranberries were used instead?
Thanks!
Yamini
Thanks Yamini. You could use dried cranberries as well. I think in that case you need not increase the quantity of sugar as I have mentioned because the dried ones are already sweetened.
mangala says
very tempting !!!happy new year!
Thanks Mangala, wish you the same.
Uma says
lovely muffins!! looks awesome.
Belated wishes for the happy new year 2010 🙂
Cilantro says
Thanks for the mention Madhuram, Muffins looks very delicious. You have inspired me enough to try my hand in baking. Recently bought some more baking pans & trays and completed my first Wilton course.
Wow! that's great to know Cilantro. All the best for your 2nd course too.
Priya says
Wishing you a happy and prosperous year Madhu..
Muffins looks beautiful and elegant!!
Thanks Priya.
Indhu says
I made a cranberry-orange quick bread... but I used store-bought orange juice and you are right about the bitterness.. I wish I had used freshly squeezed juice.. your muffins look yummy.. love the colour of the cranberries!
I too made that mistake twice Indhu. I thought that the whole wheat flour I used was the reason for bitterness and only later I was able to narrow it down to the store bought orange juice.
Sayantani says
wow these looks so cute and yummy. would love to grab some for dessert. nice easy recipe.
Champa says
I make a orange cranberry bread which is a yeast bread. That combo never fails. Nice recipe.
I too saw one such bread in Baking for Dummies book, but I have not overcome my fear for yeast yet!
Soma says
Happy New Year Madhu!
Orange and cranberry is one of the best combo around! I can just imagine the flavors.
vrinda says
Colorful muffins Madhu...Wish u all a Happy and prosperous New Year..How r u guys? Sowmya moved back to India,so akku and riya misssng Inchara a lot..hows Arjun?
Pari says
Dear Madhuram, wish you a very happy new year. thanks for dropping by, pleasure is mine.
The muffins look great, my only doubt is can I replace the fresh Cranberries with the dry ones as we do not get fresh here..
You could Pari.