Kathy’s Holiday Cranberry Muffins

I am super excited this week to have a guest blogger sharing one of her favorite holiday baking recipes, “Kathy’s Holiday Cranberry Muffins.” This recipe is from my daughter-in-law and her mother. The cranberry dessert muffins have a few “surprise” ingredients which gives a nice twist to this baked treat. They are so delicious. If you ever need a tasty muffin or cupcake to bring to parties or share as gifts, this recipe is the one. Easy to mix up, too, no electric mixer is needed. It’s a one bowl recipe. The recipe makes 18 festive muffins or one large Bundt cake. A lot to share with friends and family.

New Next Door Neighbors, “Surprise”

Wouldn’t it be a surprise if your daughter-in-law moved in next door to you. But, that’s what happened in our family. When the house next door came up for sale, our son and daughter-in-law took the opportunity and purchased the home. It turned out to be a great relationship and we got along well. We baby sat for the young family, often shared meals and birthday parties. And, since we all worked odd hours, it was easy to keep some distance, too. Our son and family have since moved to another city. We miss them, but texting, Facetime and E-mail makes it easy to keep in touch.

One of the nice things about the relationship was sharing meals and recipes such as “Indian-Inspired Spicy Cauliflower” or “Kristy’s Matzah Crack.” (See References) I was excited when my daughter-in-law mentioned her mother’s cranberry muffin recipe this summer. I have been patiently waiting all fall for cranberries to make their appearance in grocery stores to try making these dessert muffins.

So, here is the recipe and some photos of Kristy’s process. Kristy says the recipe originally came from her mother via a neighbor. Originally it was made as a Bundt cake. Good recipes get passed around!

One-Bowl Recipe and “Surprise” Ingredients

Here are the ingredients for the cranberry muffins. The “surprise” ingredients in the recipe are chocolate chips and dates. These two ingredients give a flavor “pop” and a little sweetness. It is a nice treat when you bite into the muffin. Kristy uses high-quality milk chocolate chips such as Ghirardelli brand. For dates, Dole dried chopped dates work well.

For cranberries, Kristy says that frozen cranberries give the best flavor. However, fresh ones can also be used. And don’t forget pecans — a Louisiana agricultural product — we include these nuts in alot of our baked dessert recipes.

This is truly a one-bowl recipe so get started with a large bowl. Here are the “dry” ingredients. Add these ingredients to the bowl and stir to mix well.

Then combine the liquid ingredients in with the dry ingredients — don’t overmix. If there are lumps, that’s okay.

The recipe uses buttermilk, which helps make a very tender muffin. You can either use fresh, cultured buttermilk or mix powdered buttermilk with water.

Then gently fold in the frozen cranberries, dates, pecans and chocolate chips.

Add festive cupcake liners to standard-sized muffin tins. This makes 18 muffins.

Bake in a 350 degree oven. No icing is needed for these muffins — they have plenty of sweetness and flavor.

This recipe was originally intended to be made in a Bundt cake pan. Oil the cake pan well — as it can be difficult to get the cake out of these Bundt-style cake pans. Liquid spray makes this task easy. Add the batter and bake for an hour.

However, Kristy did it — the cake “flipped” out of the Bundt cake pan in one piece.

I love using cranberries in baked pastry recipes. These cupcakes are colorful and full of holiday flavors with the other ingredients added in. I am sure that anyone who receives these as a gift will be very pleased. Enjoy these cranberry muffins with a twist!

Thanks to Kristy for sharing her mother’s recipe and taking all the fabulous photos.

Reference:

Indian-Inspired Spicy Cauliflower