My toddler is on a huge muffin kick lately. The fun part is, I never know what flavor he is going to like! One day banana nut muffins are the winner, the next, TRASH. It is exhausting keeping up with his changing pallet, but I know I will always crave any cranberry orange baked good!
I love the denseness of a homemade buttermilk biscuit and I also love the sweetness of a muffin. When I stumbled upon a buttermilk muffin recipe, I immediately knew I wanted to add my twist on it.
The recipe is simple enough, but my muffins came out a little sticky, so I might come back and tweak this recipe later- keep an eye out for updates!
There is plenty of flavor from the orange zest, but I think lemon might also be a fun substitute. Heck, if you are REALLY feeling crazy, I bet some chopped walnuts would be delicious too.
My favorite takeaway from this new recipe was learning you can zest frozen cranberries! I added a handful of cranberry shavings to the orange zest to add a little more cranberry flavor and depth. My son also ate half of the muffins throughout the day, so I’m counting this as another win- even if they weren’t perfect by my standards!
Let’s jump into the recipe:
- 2C cake flour
- 1/2C sugar
- 1Tbs baking powder
- 1tsp fine sea salt
- 4Tbs unsalted butter (half stick)
- 1 1/2C cold buttermilk
- 1 1/4C frozen cranberries
- Zest from 1 orange
- Zest from 6 frozen cranberries
Preheat oven 425°
Line muffin tin with parchment paper liners (I used regular muffin liners and I think that contributed to the stickiness)
In a large bowl, zest the orange and cranberries. Add sugar and massage the zest into the sugar to release the oils.
To the sugar zest, add flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until everything is combined.
Using the large holes on your grater, grate the chilled butter into the dry ingredients. The butter should look like grated cheese!
Use hands to combine the butter with the dry ingredients. After everything is mixed, start pinching the butter into the flour mixture to create a slightly crumbly powder. Some large chunks of butter should still remain.
Pour in the cold buttermilk and whisk together with a fork to create a thick batter.
Fold in the frozen cranberries
Scoop about 1/4C of batter into each muffin liner- should be enough for 12 muffins.
Top with a sprinkle of sugar before baking.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops begin to split and turn golden brown.
Cool for a few minutes before serving warm.
As always, if you have any cranberry recipes you would love to see me try next, send me an email, [email protected]
See you next time!