Cranberry Walnut Orange Muffin Recipe
October 7, 2007
Muffins, categorized as small quick breads, are most often baked with healthy nutritious ingredients. In fact, the combination of ingredients is only limited by imagination.
Muffins are versatile, complementing a main meal or savored alone as a simple breakfast or mid-day snack. Muffins can be made with a variety of flours, fruits and nuts.
We enjoy both the convenience of a muffin and all the satisfying tasty goodness of a muffin. Each Monday, I will feature a muffin recipe based on our cottage-favorite muffins.
Many muffin recipes call for buttermilk. I prefer sour cream. You can substitute an equal amount of buttermilk for the sour cream in the recipe that follows.
Cranberry Walnut Orange Muffins
4 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups white, brown or date sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sour cream
2/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Fold in together until everything is well-blended, but do not over mix. Add dried cranberries and walnuts. Spoon into muffin pan. I do not find that these muffins raise much above the level of the muffin cup filled, so I usually fill to the top of the muffin cup.
Mini-muffins take about 15-20 minutes to bake, standard size muffins take about 25-30 minutes and over-sized muffins can take up to 35-40 minutes. Check muffins by inserting toothpick. When the toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are done.
For mini-muffins I begin to check for doneness at 15 minutes, for standard-size muffins at 20 minutes, for over-sized muffins at 25 minutes.
I usually bake a combination of over-sized muffins and mini-muffins.
Mini-muffins are a great take-to-school treat for kids.
