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Orange cranberry muffin on natural paper liner with other muffins in background and red napkin
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Cranberry Orange Muffins with Zesty Orange Glaze

These moist Cranberry Orange Muffins with Zesty Orange Glaze will whisk you away for a moment with each scrumptious bite. This easy muffin recipe will become your go to favorite muffin recipe for fall or any time of year. Treat yourself and others with the zesty sweet flavors of orange and cranberry.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time17 minutes
Cooling Time25 minutes
Total Time1 hour 7 minutes
Course: Breakfast Side, Dessert, muffins
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cranberry, Fall, muffins, orange, Thanksgiving
Servings: 12 muffins
Calories: 306kcal
Author: Katia

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 8 Tbsp. butter unsalted & softened to room temp.
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar packed
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 2 whole naval oranges zested (divided- saving about 1/2 Tbsp. for glaze.) Note: Save oranges for juice.
  • 1/2 cup orange juice From the Naval oranges you zested, about 1.5 oranges juiced. Note: Amount of juice will vary per orange type and size.
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp orange extract If you don't have orange extract, you can simply sub this for vanilla.
  • 9.5 oz. all-purpose unbleached flour 9.5 ounces is about 2 cups spooned.
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 cup dried cranberries Rehydrated with boiling water for 15-30 mins & drained. Note: If using fresh or frozen cranberries, baking time and taste of muffins will change.

Orange Glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. orange juice
  • 1/2 Tbsp. orange zest
  • dash salt

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 425F.
  • Add 12 paper muffin liners to muffin 12-cup muffin tin.
  • In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl, cream butter with sugars for about 1 minute.
    Butter and sugars creamed in white mixing bowl
  • Add the eggs, mixing in 1 at a time, followed by sour cream, orange juice, zest, orange and vanilla extract. Stop and scrape sides as needed.
  • Add all dry ingredients to large mixing bowl; flour, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt and mix.
    Flour, baking powder, soda and salt in white mixing bowl
  • Add the dry flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir just until mostly wet, doesn't have to be perfectly mixed yet.
    dry and wet ingredients mixed together
  • Fold in the cranberries and mix just until you don't see any more dry spots.  Do not overmix.
    cranberries folded into muffin batter mixture
  • Carefully spoon batter, about 2 Tbsp. into the the paper liners, being careful not to get too much batter on the sides of the liners.  I like to use a small ice cream scoop for this. For my small 1 Tbsp. scoop it's almost exactly 2 scoops per liner.
  • Bake the muffins in the center on the middle rack at 425 F for 5 minutes. Be sure to set yourself a timer!
  • Then reduce temperature to 375 F (no need to open the oven) and bake another 12-15mins, or until toothpick inserted into the highest peak comes out clean.
    *See Note Below on Muffin Tins*
  • Let the tin cool for about 5 minutes before transferring the muffins in their liners onto a wire rack to cool for at least 20 minutes.
    Cranberry Orange Muffins after baking in muffin tin

Making the Orange Glaze

  • Once the muffins are close to room temperature you can make the glaze.
  • Add powdered sugar, orange juice, zest and a dash of salt to a medium mixing bowl and whisk with hand mixer or stand mixer until glaze is smooth, with no clumps.
  • Once the muffins are fully cooled to room temperature you can glaze the muffins. It's up to you if you want to glaze the tops of the muffins just in the paper liners or if you want to remove the liners first. You might not use all of the glaze either, I use about 3/4 of the glaze.
    glazed muffins in paper liners

Notes

Please Note:
Muffin Pans- Believe it or not, different muffin pans will bake muffins differently.  I tested this recipe in different muffin pans and the results were different; varying peaks/rise on the muffins and varying times baking. I highly recommend a Steel Muffin pan vs an aluminum one which loses heat. 
Cranberries- I like to re-hydrate dried cranberries because I like the way they plump up more and are more tender after baking in the muffins.  This is optional though, your call.  If you do rehydrate, place the dried cranberries in a bowl covered with boiling water for 15-30 mins and then drain them well, squeezing out some moisture just with your hands before adding them to your batter. 
Oranges- Oranges vary in size, flavor and skin for zesting.  I tried different oranges when creating this recipe and overall I found that naval oranges worked best, 2nd choice, cara cara oranges.  Naval had the best overall "orange" flavor and great zest. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1Muffin | Calories: 306kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 277mg | Potassium: 91mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 380IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 58mg | Iron: 1mg