These cranberry and orange muffins made with yogurt are so moist and delectable, you won’t even care that they’re rather healthy, too! No butter, a whole cup of yogurt and very little sugar make them a perfect breakfast treat. or afternoon snack. Just read the reviews!
If you haven’t tried my perfect plum muffins, then maybe this recipe for cranberry and orange muffins will convince you to try the recipe. No matter which fruit I use, they always turn out–well, perfectly!
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I found some frozen cranberries in my freezer, and decided I’d make some cranberry and orange muffins. They are my favorite bakery item to order whenever I go to Homegirl Cafe in downtown Los Angeles, one of my favorite charities.
As you can see from the photos, using the perfect plum muffin recipe, but using cranberries and orange rind instead of plums was a good call. These cranberry and orange muffins tasted awesome, and this will not be the the last time I make them! (Updated 5/2018: I cannot count how many times I’ve made these!)
Baking options
I made six really huge muffins, lined with squares of parchment paper. and one mini-loaf pan. However, you can also make 12 regular cupcake sized muffins from this recipe. I’ve also baked the entire batter in a regular sized loaf tin.
Again, I highly recommend using a scale for best results.
Homemade (Perfect) Cranberry and Orange Muffins
makes 12 regular muffins (printable recipe below)
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC)
Ingredients
- 2 cups (275g) good quality white flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/3 cup (100g) sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup (100ml) light olive oil or sunflower oil
- 1 cup (225ml) Greek yogurt or labne (if using regular yogurt, omit the buttermilk/milk)
- 2 Tbsp buttermilk (or milk with a squeeze of lemon)
- 300g (2 cups) fresh or frozen (let defrost a bit) cranberries (I’ve also used 1 cup dried cranberries)
- grated rind of one orange (preferably organic)
- Swedish pearl sugar or Demerara sugar (Sugar in the Raw) for topping
Sift first 3 ingredients into a large bowl, then stir in sugar. (<– DO NOT FORGET THE SUGAR)
Place the cranberries (toss with a tiny bit of flour, which will stop them from falling to the bottom) with the grated orange peel in a small bowl, and set aside. (You can use a fine grater for the peel, I just did larger peel this time.)
In a large measuring jug, combine the eggs, oil, yogurt and buttermilk and whisk to combine.
Stir the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients, just until barely combined (do not mix until the flour is completely cleared).
Add the cranberries and orange peel, and continue to fold the mixture until just combined.
Do not over stir muffins or they will not be light in texture.
Gently place the mixture into the muffin cups or mini-loaf pans, or one large loaf tin, then sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until muffins and golden brown (if making one loaf, bake for about 50 to 55 minutes) and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center.
Try to let the Cranberry and Orange Yogurt Muffins cool slightly before digging in with a hot cup of tea!
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Homemade Cranberry and Orange Yogurt Muffins
These beautiful muffins have less sugar, no butter and are made with yogurt so are quite healthy compared to other recipes, yet there's no sacrifice in the flavor.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (275g) good quality white flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/3 cup (100g) sugar
- 1/2 cup (100ml) light olive oil or sunflower oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup (225ml) greek yogurt or labne (if using regular yogurt, omit the buttermilk/milk)
- 2 Tbsp buttermilk
- 2 cups (300g) fresh or frozen cranberries (I've also used 1 cup of dried cranberries)
- grated rind of one orange (preferably organic)
- Swedish pearl sugar, or Demerara sugar (sugar in the raw) for topping
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F (175C)
- Sift first 3 ingredients into a large bowl, then stir in sugar.
- Place the cranberries (toss with a tiny bit of flour, which will stop them from falling to the bottom of the pan) with the grated orange peel in a small bowl, and set aside.
- In a large measuring jug, combine the eggs, oil, yogurt and buttermilk and whisk to combine. Stir the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients, just until barely combined (do not mix until the flour is completely cleared).
- Add the cranberries and orange peel, and continue to fold the mixture until just combined. Do not over stir muffins or they will not be light in texture.
- Place the mixture into the muffin cups or mini-loaf pans, or one large loaf tin, then sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until muffins and golden brown (or 50 to 55 mins if making one loaf) and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center.
- Try to let them cool slightly before digging in, with a hot cup of tea!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving:Calories: 131Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 33mgSodium: 162mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 4g
Nutrition information is only an estimate.
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The batter was more like cookie dough. Is this the way it’s supposed to be ?
YES! A light cookie dough, not really like a runny batter. You’re good! :)
Thank you. They were fantastic. Next time I will make lemon blueberry muffins following the same batter recipe
Excellent! Lemon blueberry will be fabulous!!
Hi, Christina,
First of all – I AM IN LOVE with the whole orange cake! I’m not much of a cook and when I tried it I literally said that this was the tastiest thing that I have ever cooked. I even made a tiny addition – I cut it in two and spread some mascarpone+egg filling between the two halves and on top. It produces the perfect holiday cake ;)
Sorry for the off topic but it was long due!
Now for the muffins – do you think it will be doable to sub the white flour with whole wheat? And the white sugar for brown? It’s only 100g so I can live with it, thou. Still, I have to check upon my diet for a while but the look amazing so I’m a little tempted to give them a try.
So happy you like the orange cake!
Re: the muffins, I have never used wheat flour and brown sugar, so all I can tell you is that you can try! Let me know if you do!
Ok, this is gonna be long one, but I have a little story to tell.
I fell in love with the blood orange cookies recipe but it’s extremely hard to find those in Bulgaria and I just decided to wait till some supermarket around stocks them.
Two weeks ago we had an event and we made the yummy orange cake. We bought a pack of bio oranges and I still had 3 oranges and decided to try the muffins. As I said in the previous comment I’m on a tiny diet so I used brown sugar and 1:1 all purpose and whole wheat flour so it wasn’t all whole wheat cuz I was scared to alter the whole thing. (I always follow the recipes!)
They came out amazing, but apparently my cranberries were a bit sour so the muffins needed a dash of honey.
Now the funny part – my boyfriend took the orange I zested and wanted to juice it. So he cut it and says “Oh, look, it’s a blood orange.”
I literally jumped off the couch and screamed:”Don’t touch it! Don’t even think about it! Don’t breathe around it! I need it!”
The poor thing was a bit shocked :D Can you believe it?! A blood orange mixed in pack of normal oranges?! And in the verry moment I’m whining that I can’t find one?! What are the odds… Anyway, I now have 6 tbsp juice in the fridge and tomorrow I’m gonna give them a go.
Wish me luck! (Sorry again for the long post)
OMG, that is HILARIOUS!!! I love it! He must have jumped out of his socks! haha! That was so lucky though and good thing he said soemthing! Can you imagine if he told you later?! Enjoy the cookies!! No apology needed, I love it!
I’d like to make these with bran and chopped walnuts added, and orange left out. Would that work and if so what amounts of bran and walnuts would you suggest, and would there be any other changes needed? Alternatively, could I use wholemeal flour or wholegrain flour? I don’t want to spoil what sounds like a lovely muffin! Thank you
Robyn
Hi Robyn, these muffins are pretty versatile, but I have never made them with the substitutions you suggest, so my answer is honestly, I have no idea. You are wanting to do something I constantly advise against: changing the entire recipe before even making it once. It’s one thing to omit the orange (which is just flavoring, if perhaps you don’t like orange), and I have this muffin recipe on my site with rhubarb, plums, and so many other fruits, but omitting the fruit entirely and then changing the flour? It’s not the same recipe anymore. What I suggest is making it as written FIRST, then once you know the recipe a bit, THEN make some small changes, one at a time.
You have to understand that the reason this is a bad idea is that the changes will often cause the recipe to fail. Often, people who do this then leave me a 1 star, scathing review that the recipe “didn’t work”. It’s simply not my recipe at that point. Thanks for understanding and good luck, it is truly a lovely muffin (the best I’ve ever had, and it’s not my recipe, so I’m not bragging) :)
Thanks for this recipe – it was time to update the one I had that used orange juice for the orange flavour. This fit the bill!
I made them today and my only change was to add about half a cup of white chocolate chips. I skipped the sugar topping, they didn’t need it with the white chocolate providing extra sweetness. Yum!
Awesome, Robyn! Thank you and sounds good with the white chocolate! :)
Hi, can I substitute Greek yogurt with sour cream? I have run out of yogurt…
YES! :)
Thank you♥️
[…] I’d tried the plum muffins, it was onto blueberry, and orange cranberry muffins, any fruit I tried was fabulous! Most recently, I posted the recipe for rhubarb muffins, and they […]
[…] are super versatile! I’ve made plum, blueberry, peach, rhubarb, cranberry-orange, and so many more. The printable recipe below will highlight a mixed fruit […]