My favourite muffin of all time growing up was McDonald’s cranberry-orange muffins. Crunchy sweet top with pops of tartness from the cranberries sporadically scattered inside each muffin, let’s be honest – it’s still my go-to muffin! It took me roughly 5-6 batches to come up with this gluten free recipe because I wanted to explore adding a plant-based protein powder, different flour combinations and alternatives for dairy-free versions. Ultimately, this gluten free and low-dairy cranberry-orange muffin recipe amps up the flavours of cranberries and orange while adding more fibre and keeping the recipe relatively easy to assemble. Enjoy!

Serving Size: 8 large muffins 

Dry Ingredients:

• Flour combo: ⅓ cup cornmeal, ⅓ cup ground flax seeds, ⅔ + 2 tbsp. Brown rice flour
• 1 tsp. Baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• Dash of ground cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

• ½ cup brown butter
• ½ an orange juice + zest
• ½ a lemon juice
• ⅓ cup white sugar
• 2 tbsp. Orange marmalade (I used Mackay’s orange marmalade with whiskey)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups frozen cranberries (keep in freezer until needed)
• 2 tbsp. Turbonado sugar (optional)

Procedure:

1. Make ½ cup brown butter. Allow to cool after the brown butter turns to an amber colour. Tip: You can add an ice cube to cool it down faster.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (or 190 degrees Celcius).
3. Combine white sugar + cooled brown butter. Mix until incorporated. Tip: The sugar doesn’t have to dissolve completely.
4. Add the eggs in the sugar-brown butter mixture. Mix well. Tip: It may look like the mixture is broken, but that’s ok. Keep going. 
5. Add the vanilla extract to the eggs, sugar and brown butter wet mixture. 
6. Add the flour combo (cornmeal, ground flax seeds and brown rice flour), baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt into the wet mixture. Mix until combined. Tip: This might look dry, but that’s ok.
7. Zest half an orange then add to the mixture. 
8. Squeeze the juice of half an orange and lemon in the mixture. Make sure to catch any seeds! Tip: This is important to add after the dry ingredients are incorporated with the wet. Otherwise, the orange flavour may cause the muffin to taste medicinal against the tartness of the cranberries after baking.
9. Add the orange marmalade with the orange zest, juice and lemon juice. Mix well to combine. You can add the turbonado sugar at this stage too (optional).
10. Fetch 2 cups of frozen cranberries from the freezer then combine with the mixture. 
11. Scoop muffin mixture into large lined muffin tins. Tip: You can use a standard size muffin tins, which would increase the yield of muffins you end up with!
12. Bake for 23-25 minutes or until the perimeter of the muffin is golden brown.

The base of this recipe takes inspiration from my original cornbread recipe, although the dairy component is much less in comparison. For dairy-free versions of this recipe, I suggest swapping the butter for neutral oil. There are vegan yogurt or kefir options you can try to add as well, but the fat needs to be supplemented to keep the muffins moist so keep that in mind when you’re making updates. Alternatively, if you’d like to play around with adding protein powder on top of the flour combo, add another egg or slightly increase the oil. I suggest adding protein powders that do not have a strong flavour because it may have an impact on the orange flavour profile.  

Always,

K

P.S. These muffins also freeze well after baking!