These Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Muffins are a bright and cozy way to start the day. Dairy free and naturally sweetened, bursting with pops of cranberry and orange in each bite – they are my new favorite muffin! This post contains affiliate links for products I’m obsessed with.
Cranberry Orange Muffins
Here we are – the official last recipe of 2021. The last weeks, well months, have been such a blur, that I haven’t began any reflections on the year as of yet…still trying to get everything holiday ready. But getting ready to close out another year of healthy and delicious recipes for you all has me feeling super grateful. I truly love this blog and the community behind it. Thank you again for being here and for all of your support.
Speaking of community, this post was inspired by one of my sweetest and most loyal readers…someone from my supporters group. Before she request Cranberry Orange Muffins, they weren’t even on my radar. And now, after tested and perfecting them, I am OBSESSED and so excited to share them with you all. So thank you, Aubrey, for inspiring this one and for just being you.
Dry Ingredients for Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Muffins
- Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-1 Baking Flour: I used my favorite baking flour in these muffins, but if you aren’t gluten free, you can sub whole wheat or all purpose flour in these.
- Cinnamon: just a touch, like in my Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce.
- Baking soda and baking powder: I use both to get that perfect rise. Tip: be sure you replace these every few months for best results when baking.
- Salt: to help bring out the sweetness in the muffins.
- Raw sugar (with an optional dash of cinnamon): a tiny bit of raw sugar added to the tops of these muffins elevate them oh-so-much…think store bought bakery style according to my daughter.
And of course, you need fresh Cranberries! I pulse mine in my food processor a couple of times to make the pieces a little smaller. You could also a rough chop with a sharp knife.
Tip: If you ever added fruit to your muffins and it sank to the bottom, mix your fruit into and coat with the dry ingredients first, instead of folding your fruit into the batter. It will definitely help those chunks stay put!
Wet Ingredients for Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Muffins
Here’s whatcha need to add to that flour mixture:
- Oil: you can use melted coconut oil, avocado oil, or extra virgin olive oil in this recipe.
- Maple syrup: I prefer maple syrup to honey in my baked goods, but it can be swapped in a pinch.
- Pure vanilla extract: a muffin ingredient staple!
- Eggs: I haven’t tried it, but I think flax eggs could work if you are looking for a vegan option.
- Unsweetened applesauce: feel free to use homemade or store bought – they both work great. I added this to add some additional sweetness to the muffins to balance out those tart cranberries.
- Orange zest and fresh orange juice: I love this flavor combo so much – orange and cranberry is the best! You want the zest of two oranges and a total of 2 Tablespoons of fresh orange juice for these.
TIP: When you zest fruit, make sure you only get the colored part of the rind. If you zest the white part, you will get a more bitter flavor in your recipes! So don’t push hard and move around the oranges to get all the sweet orange zest!
How to Make Cranberry Orange Muffins
- Preheat oven to 425 and prep your muffin tin with liners – I LOVE the parchment kind because you know nothing is gonna stick.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix up those wet ingredients.
- In a larger mixing bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Fold cranberries into dry mixture and coat evenly. Stir wet ingredients into the dry and incorporate well.
- Divide muffin batter into prepared cupcake tins. Sprinkle tops of muffins with raw sugar.
- Cook for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Inhale!
Can I freeze these Healthy Muffins?
For sure! These would be yummy to batch cook and freeze for meal prep! Just freeze in an air tight container, Ziptop bag, or ziplock bag, then thaw on the counter or in the fridge. You can also thaw in the microwave if you can’t wait!
More Fresh Cranberry Recipes:
- Holiday Pear Apple Cranberry Crisp
- Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce
- Cranberry Holiday Salsa
- Warm Honey Roasted Butternut Squash Salad
- Cranberry Apple Pie Overnight Oats | The Foodie and The Fix
Cranberry Orange Muffins
Equipment
- 12 cupcake/muffin parchment liners
Ingredients
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil (I used avocado oil)
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 eggs room temp
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Zest from 2 oranges
- 2 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 1 ¾ cup Bob’s red mill 1-1 gluten free baking flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups fresh cranberries chopped or pulsed in a food processor
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400. Line a 12 space muffin tin with parchment liners or grease well.
- In a medium sized bowl, beat oil and maple syrup together, then beat in eggs. Add in applesauce, vanilla, zest from 2 oranges and 2T of fresh orange juice. and set aside.
- In a larger mixing bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Fold cranberries into dry mixture and coat evenly. Stir wet ingredients into the dry and incorporate well.
- Divide muffin batter into prepared cupcake tins. Sprinkle tops of muffins with raw sugar.
- Cook for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and muffins are golden on top.
Katrina says
Love these with cranberry and orange in the winter/fall and blueberry lemon in the summer/spring!
Kelly says
Hi! Could I make an oatmeal flour to use with this? Would I need the same amount?
Nancylynn says
Yes, that should work just fine! But I haven’t tested it, so let us know how it goes if you try it!
Kassie says
Rather than using oil, could I just add more applesauce?
Nancylynn says
Haven’t tested it that way, but you can def give it a try. I think it will work!
Sara says
These are my favorite muffins! I make them every week. I always substitute the cranberries for frozen blueberries because you can’t find crans in stores now. Super delicious with the orange. Thanks!
Nancylynn says
Such a great tip! Thank you!
Since you love the recipe so much, would you mind also adding a 5 star rating to your comment? It helps google (and other readers) know just how much you love it! Thank you so much!
Susan says
Hello,
Loving all your recipes. But I am trying to do grain free. What flours can I sub for the gluten free (which usually has rice flour)/
Thanks
Nancylynn says
I haven’t tested any grain free options for this recipe so it’s tough to say!
Christina says
The recipe says it makes 12 muffins. I have three people in my family who are all in different brackets but we are looking to follow the meal plan this recipe is associated with (Vol. 11 meal plan). Do I still need to triple this recipe to feed them all or is this one batch enough?
Nancylynn says
Great question! In Vol. 11 you will only need 4 muffins per person for the week on Brackets A-D. On E and F you will need 8 muffins per person for the week. So if the 3 people in your family are on A-D one batch will be enough, but if anyone is on E or F you will need to double or 1.5 the recipe. I hope that makes sense!
Kimberly Green says
I can’t find fresh or frozen cranberries. Could I use a different berry?
Nancylynn says
Bummer! You can try blueberries or raspberries as a pretty good sub. But just leave them whole, or halve with a knife. If you put those berries in the food processor, they will become super mushy. Let us know how it goes!
Barb says
What can you use instead of applesauce? I’m allergic to apples.
Nancylynn says
It hasn’t been tested, but maybe try Greek yogurt. The applesauce is for some added sweetness, so maybe even try vanilla flavored Greek yogurt.
Dana Cain says
Hi, Do you know how to make this without eggs? I can’t have eggs. thanks
Nancylynn says
It hasn’t been tested with this specific recipe, but using a flax egg replacement (1 TBSP flaxseed mixed with 3 TBSP water) when baking typically works very well. Let us know if you try it!
Debbie says
Just finished making my second batch of these, doubling the batch this time! These are delicious!
Nancylynn says
AHH yay!! They freeze amazing too – double batch is the way to go!!
Chandy says
Can I use frozen cranberries? I can’t seem to find fresh berries anywhere.
Nancylynn says
Yes!!