Our family’s favorite muffins!  A soft, fluffy, orange-y muffin with little bursts of tart cranberry — the whole thing covered with a tangy and sweet orange glaze or crunchy orange-sugar.  Make them as full-sized or minis and bring them to a Christmas party and your platter will be empty before you know it.

Or just one of these mornings, make these babies and bite into that sweet yum with your cup of coffee…oh, good heavens.  I’m so making another batch right now.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Butter each muffin cup and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

In a mixing bowl, cream 4 T. butter

with 1 c. sugar.

Add one egg and mix well.

Stir in 3/4 c. orange juice.

In a separate bowl, mix 2 c. flour

1 1 /2 tsp. baking powder,

1/2 tsp. baking soda,

1/2 tsp. salt,

and 1 T. orange zest.

Wash and dry 1 1/2 c. fresh cranberries and toss them with at least 2 T. granulated white sugar in a small bowl.

Gently mix the wet and dry ingredients, and then fold in the cranberries. Do not over-mix! It will toughen up the final product.

Use a cookie dough scoop to fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full.  You can use regular size muffin tins or minis (keep in mind that minis will need to make a bit less).

Here’s where you have an important decision to make.  If you’d like a sweet orange glaze, you can whip this up while they bake to drizzle over your cooled muffins!  Just whisk 1 1 /2 c. sifted powdered sugar with 2 T. orange juice, adding more as needed until it reaches the desired consistency.  You just need it thin enough to drizzle.

Or, you can zest an orange and use your fingers to rub the zest into 2 T. of sparkling or coarse sugar until you’ve scented the sugar.  Sprinkle the muffin batter with this orange sugar before baking.

Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let them stand 10 minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

 

To glaze, place a piece of parchment paper under your wire rack and drizzle the glaze over the mostly cooled beauties.

That’s it!  Beautiful and flavorful Cranberry Orange Muffins just waiting for you to have a perfect bite of yum!