• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Free Ebook!Subscribe to updates & get a recipe book!

Subscribe & Receive My Free Recipe Ebook!

The Chunky Chef

Comforting Family Recipes

  • All Recipes
  • Learn to Cook
  • Shop
    • My eBooks
    • Favorite Products
  • About
  • Contact
  • Trending:

    Slow Cooker

    Easy Dinners

    Desserts

    My Saved Recipe Box
  • Browse By:
  • Course
    • Appetizers
    • Breakfast
    • Main Dishes
    • Sides
    • Drinks
    • Desserts
    • Salads
    • Soups
    • Sandwiches
    • Healthy-ish
  • Ingredient
    • Chicken
    • Beef
    • Pork
    • Turkey
    • Seafood
    • Meatless
    • Pasta
  • Cuisine
    • Asian
    • Italian
    • Mexican
    • Hawaiian
    • Middle Eastern
    • Comfort Food
  • Method
    • One Pot
    • Crockpot
    • Instant Pot
    • Oven
    • Fried
    • Grilling/BBQ
  • Trending:

    Slow Cooker

    Easy Dinners

    Desserts

Home / Bread / Muffins

Cranberry Orange Muffins

4.73
/5
40 minutes
17 Comments
Jump to Recipe Print Pin
By: The Chunky Chefpublished: 09/22/2020

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

These Cranberry Orange Muffins are made with tart cranberries, bright orange zest, and sweet freshly squeezed orange juice folded gently into a thick and rich classic muffin batter. Perfect for the holidays, school mornings, or anytime! #muffins #cranberry #orange #breakfast #dessert #easyrecipe #baking
These Cranberry Orange Muffins are made with tart cranberries, bright orange zest, and sweet freshly squeezed orange juice folded gently into a thick and rich classic muffin batter. Perfect for the holidays, school mornings, or anytime! #muffins #cranberry #orange #breakfast #dessert #easyrecipe #baking

These Cranberry Orange Muffins are made with tart cranberries, bright orange zest, and sweet freshly squeezed orange juice folded gently into a thick and rich classic muffin batter. Perfect for the holidays, school mornings, or anytime! 

These Cranberry Orange Muffins are such a fun breakfast treat, and SO delicious!  We love breakfasts that can double as a dessert, like my Old Fashioned Donuts, and Sticky Buns.   This is one of my Breakfast recipes you’ll definitely want in your collection!

cranberry orange muffins in muffin pan with fresh fruit

CRANBERRY ORANGE MUFFINS

Have you spotted fresh cranberries out in the grocery stores yet?  If you haven’t, you will soon!  Other than using them to make Cranberry Sauce and White Christmas Sangria, these muffins are my favorite cranberry recipe.

They’re the perfect combination of sweet and tart, and full of bright, refreshing flavors! And they’re SO much better than any muffins you could make from a mix/box.

Once you start making homemade muffins you’ll realize how easy they are, and how much better they taste, and you won’t be buying anymore pre-made mixes.

Plus, muffins are great to freeze, so you can have fresh muffins anytime you want them!

HOW TO MAKE CRANBERRY ORANGE MUFFINS

step by step photos for making orange muffins

  1. Combine dry ingredients. Add the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder to a large mixing bowl and whisk.
  2. Add wet ingredients. Add oil, egg, and orange juice to the flour mixture and whisk.
  3. Fold in delicate ingredients. Gently fold/stir in the orange zest and cranberries.
  4. Transfer to baking pan. Scoop batter into standard 12 cup muffin pan lined with baking liners, filling the liners 3/4 of the way full.

step by step photos for making streusel topping

  1. Make topping. Add sugar, flour, cinnamon and butter and mix using a pastry cutter or forks until pea-sized clumps form.
  2. Add topping and bake. Sprinkle topping over the top of muffin liners, then bake at 400°F for 20 minute or until cooked through.
  3. Cool. Let muffins cool in pan for a few minutes, then transfer to wire rack to continue cooling.

ADDITIONAL COOKING TIPS

  • Room temperature ingredients – for the best results when baking, your cold ingredients should be at room temperature so they can incorporate fully into the batter.
  • Easy on the stirring – when mixing you want to stir until JUST combined (when you no longer see streaks of flour).  If you over-mix, your muffins could end up tough, bake unevenly, or have lots of large holes in it.
  • Use fresh ingredients – some of these are obvious, like using non-expired eggs, but did you know using older baking soda/baking powder can affect the way your baked goods bake?  Over time, leavening agents (which is what baking soda and powder are) lose their efficacy, and won’t give your quick bread a good rise.
    • If you’re unsure if your baking soda or powder are still good, drop a pinch in some hot water.  If it fizzes, it’s still good!  If not, then you’re in need of some new ingredients.

cranberry orange muffins in baking pan with fruit

VARIATIONS OF THIS RECIPE

  • NUTS – adding a handful of chopped, toasted pecans or walnuts adds great crunch and texture to your muffins.
  • DRIED CRANBERRIES – if you don’t have any fresh cranberries, you can use dried, but you’ll use about 1 1/2 cups of dried cranberries.
  • SOUR CREAM – swapping the vegetable oil for sour cream will yield a springy, moist muffin, with less fat.
  • GLAZED – instead of the streusel topping, try whisking together 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 1-2 Tbsp orange juice or milk.  Whisk until smooth and drizzle over the tops of the muffins!
  • DOMED TOPS – if you like your muffins to have a more domed top, bake the muffins at 425°F for the first 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature (while the muffins are still in there) to 375°F and continue baking another 13-15 minutes.

These Cranberry Orange Muffins are made with tart cranberries, bright orange zest, and sweet freshly squeezed orange juice folded gently into a thick and rich classic muffin batter. Perfect for the holidays, school mornings, or anytime! #muffins #cranberry #orange #breakfast #dessert #easyrecipe #baking

MAKING MUFFINS AHEAD OF TIME

We think these muffins taste just as good, if not better the next day… so you can make them a day ahead of time, but I wouldn’t do much more than that.

But my favorite way to enjoy these muffins is nice and warm from the oven!

STORAGE

Leftover muffins should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container and consumed within 3-4 days.

For best taste, consume within 1-2 days.

cranberry orange muffin on white plate

FREEZING

Baked muffins can be frozen for up to 3 months.  Place muffins on a baking sheet and freeze for 1-2 hours, then place frozen muffins into freezer containers and freeze.

Thaw overnight in the refrigerator (or on the counter for an hour or so), then reheat at 350°F for 10 minutes or so to warm them up and give them that “just baked” taste.

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT FOR THIS RECIPE

The following links are affiliate links.

The Chunky Chef, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  For more information regarding this program and what it means for you, please see my Privacy page.

  • Muffin Pan – I have several of these pans and they’re great!
  • Mixing Bowls – I love these stainless bowls with the non-slip bottoms and handles!
  • Cookie Scoop – not just for cookies, this is great to scoop the muffin batter into the liners.

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT OTHER READERS’ COMMENTS FOR TIPS AND REVIEWS.

AND DON’T FORGET, IF YOU’VE MADE THIS RECIPE, LEAVE A COMMENT AND PLEASE GIVE IT A STAR RATING LETTING ME KNOW HOW YOU ENJOYED IT!

Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @the_chunky_chef on Facebook and Instagram!

cranberry orange muffin on white plate

Cranberry Orange Muffins

4.73 from 11 votes
Author: The Chunky Chef
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Calories: 281
Servings: 12 muffins
(hover over # to adjust)
Print Rate Pin
These Cranberry Orange Muffins are made with tart cranberries, bright orange zest, and sweet freshly squeezed orange juice folded gently into a thick and rich classic muffin batter.

Ingredients

MUFFINS

  • 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup orange juice freshly squeezed is best
  • 1 tsp orange zest
  • 1 - 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries

STREUSEL TOPPING

  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter cold
  • 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a standard 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.

COMBINE MUFFIN INGREDIENTS

  • In a mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda, and whisk to combine.
  • To the flour mixture, add vegetable oil, egg, and orange juice and whisk until combined.
  • Use a rubber spatula to fold in the orange zest and cranberries.

ADD BATTER TO PAN

  • Scoop/pour batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling the liners about 3/4 of the way up. Set aside.

MAKE TOPPING

  • In a small bowl, add all topping ingredients and cut the butter into the mixture using a pastry cutter, two forks, or just your fingers. Once you get pea-sized clumps, you're good.

ADD TOPPING AND BAKE

  • Sprinkle topping on top of muffin batter. Bake 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.

COOL

  • Remove muffin pan from oven and let muffins cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to continue cooling.

Want to save this recipe for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own recipe box!

Nutrition Disclaimer

The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

Did You Make This?Tag @the_chunky_chef on Instagram and hashtag it #thechunkychef so I can see what you made!
Tag on Insta! Leave a Rating Save for Later Saved!

You May Also Like...

  • Easy and classic cranberry sauce, made from scratch in just 20 minutes and with only 4 ingredients!  Perfect with roasted turkey and on leftover sandwiches too! #cranberry #sauce #holiday #thanksgiving #sidedish #condiment #fromscratch #easyrecipe
    Cranberry Sauce with Orange and Cinnamon
  • Get ready to toss those boxes of muffin mix, these homemade blueberry muffins are moist, loaded with blueberries, and so simple to make!  Directions for regular, jumbo and mini sized muffins! #blueberry #muffins #breakfast #brunch #baking #homemade #scratch #easyrecipe
    Classic Blueberry Muffins
  • One Bowl Zucchini Muffins | One bowl, no mixer needed, and everyday ingredients... the perfect zucchini muffins! These muffins are perfect for breakfast, a snack, or getting kids to eat extra veggies! | http://thechunkychef.com
    One Bowl Zucchini Muffins
  • Get ready to toss those boxes of muffin mix, these homemade chocolate chip muffins are moist and tender, loaded with plenty of gooey chocolate, and so simple to make!  Directions for regular, jumbo and mini sized muffins! #muffins #chocolatechip #chocolate #kidfriendly #breakfast #brunch #baking #homemade #scratch #easyrecipe
    Chocolate Chip Muffins
Previous Post
Next Post

Meet The Chunky Chef

Hey there! I'm Amanda. Wife, mother, photography nerd, and bacon lover! I believe that delicious meals should be easy to make. Now that you’re here, stay a bit, browse a few recipes, and let’s get cookin’!

Learn More

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Have a question? Submit your question, comment, or review below.

Recipe Rating




  1. SusanAnn M Sheidy says

    Posted on 8/25 at 8:39 pm

    I would like to use large muffin tins please advise to temp. and time change.

    Reply
    • The Chunky Chef says

      Posted on 8/25 at 9:56 pm

      I’ve only tested this recipe as written. So without testing and retesting it myself, I can’t say for certain exactly what the temperature and baking time would be. If you do some experimenting, I’d love to know how it turns out!

      Reply
  2. Darci says

    Posted on 9/3 at 1:23 pm

    Easy to make. I found the muffins to be rather heavy and dense. Not what I was expecting.

    Reply
  3. Linda says

    Posted on 1/23 at 11:43 pm

    I just baked these muffins exactly to the recipe and they were DELICIOUS! Thank you 🙂

    Reply
    • Cori says

      Posted on 8/15 at 7:24 pm

      I made these with raspberries from our garden instead of cranberries. Family fave ❤

      Reply
  4. Jen says

    Posted on 12/29 at 7:23 pm

    These sound wonderful and I’m wondering if i can replace the cranberries with leftover homemade cranberry sauce. .

    Reply
    • The Chunky Chef says

      Posted on 12/30 at 10:32 pm

      Thank you! I’ve only tested this recipe as written. So without testing and retesting it myself, I can’t say for certain if that would work. If you try it, I’d love to know how it turns out!

      Reply
  5. Sarah says

    Posted on 11/19 at 4:21 pm

    Wow, these were so good! I followed the recipe exactly as written and my husband and I could not stop eating them! Cranberry-orange is such a great combination and the sugar topping really helps balance out the tart of the fresh cranberries. I am in love. This will definitely be a go-to for us moving forward. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  6. Kimberley Mitchell says

    Posted on 11/11 at 8:01 am

    These are so delish!! Sweet and Tart and warm and yummy :). Terrific recipe!

    Reply
  7. Bonnie says

    Posted on 10/17 at 9:49 pm

    These are delicious, so glad I tried them! Follow as written and definitely recommend using fresh orange juice

    Reply
  8. Kevin says

    Posted on 9/25 at 12:32 pm

    These are perfect for this time of year! I will be making these often!

    Reply
  9. Toni Dash says

    Posted on 9/24 at 11:16 am

    This is seriously amazing! Everyone at my house enjoyed it.

    Reply
  10. Patricia @ Grab a Plate says

    Posted on 9/24 at 10:07 am

    These are amazing! I looooove the fresh cranberries included – what a treat!

    Reply
  11. Erin | Dinners,Dishes and Dessert says

    Posted on 9/23 at 11:49 pm

    These Cranberry Orange Muffins are sound delicious! Dangerously good…

    Reply
  12. Dorothy Reinhold says

    Posted on 9/23 at 8:30 pm

    Three of my favorite things in one muffin! I love the cranberry, orange, and crumb topping!

    Reply
  13. Kim says

    Posted on 9/23 at 1:18 pm

    I’ve never made muffins using whole cranberries, only cranberry sauce! I’m excited to try this. Thanks for the recipe.

    Reply
  14. Beth says

    Posted on 9/23 at 10:07 am

    Orange and cranberry are mine and my daughters favorite this time of year! Can’t wait to make these!

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

welcome!

Hey there! I'm Amanda. Wife, mother, photography nerd, and bacon lover! I believe that delicious meals should be easy to make. Now that you’re here, stay a bit, browse a few recipes, and let’s get cookin’!

New! Save Recipes To Your Own Account!

Free eBook!

Subscribe & receive my most popular recipes compiled into an easy ebook format!

download now!

Subscribe & Receive My Free Recipe Ebook!

Game Day Recipes!

These crowd-pleasing tender meatballs are smothered in a super flavorful honey garlic bbq sauce.  Perfect for parties, this crockpot meatball recipe couldn't be more simple to make! #meatballs #crockpot #slowcooker #honeygarlic #bbq #appetizer #party #honey #garlic #easyrecipe

Honey Garlic Crockpot Meatballs

2 hours 5 minutes

Smooth and silky queso dip, made using NO velveeta!  Packed with flavor, yet so easy to make, and party ready in just 20 minutes! #queso #dip #cheese #mexican #appetizer #party #cincodemayo #easyrecipe

Queso Dip Recipe

20 minutes

Creamy, cheesy, and oh so addicting, this bacon cheeseburger dip is just like your favorite gooey cheeseburger... but in a party-ready dip form! #bacon #gameday #cheesy #cheeseburger #party #appetizer #dip #easyrecipe

Creamy Bacon Cheeseburger Dip

32 minutes

Insanely tasty chicken wing recipe, dry rubbed, then hickory smoked to perfection.  And don't forget the homemade bourbon bbq sauce! #chickenwings #wingrecipe #smoked #smoker #smokedchickenwings #bourbon #bbq #crispy

Bourbon BBQ Smoked Chicken Wings

3 hours

This easy game day appetizer combines classic buffalo wing flavors with cool creaminess in an easy dip made in the crockpot. Perfect for any party, serve it up with chips or celery sticks and watch everyone go back for seconds!

Buffalo Chicken Dip (Crockpot Recipe)

2 hours 10 minutes

Chicken Taco Mexican Pinwheels | These pinwheels are filled with a creamy chicken taco filling, which is easily customizable, and rolled up to make a perfect appetizer or party food! | http://thechunkychef.com

Chicken Taco Mexican Pinwheels

15 minutes

More Holiday Recipes >

Who doesn’t love free stuff?

Who doesn't love free stuff? Get an ad-free ebook of my most popular recipes, plus be the FIRST to know about new things coming to the site!

Looking for something?

As Seen On…

Stay Connected

subscribe to get new posts via email:

Quick & Easy

Dinner Favorites

Hearty and positively soul-warming, this beef barley soup simmers all day in the slow cooker, which makes for an incredibly rich soup recipe! #beefbarley #soup #slowcooker #crockpot #comfortfood #barley #beefsoup #easyrecipe #dinner
M

Crockpot Beef Barley Soup

white bowl of chicken and dumplings
T

Instant Pot Chicken & Dumplings

HONEY GARLIC SALMON - Succulent and tender salmon filets cooked in a mouthwatering simple honey garlic sauce, then broiled until sticky and caramelized.  Made with simple ingredients, in one pan, and in just 20 minutes! #salmon #honeygarlic #onepan #easyrecipe #dinner #seafood #fish
W

Honey Garlic Glazed Salmon

Light and filling, this Italian Wedding Soup is perfectly delicious comfort food, all year round.  Made in one pan, and ready in 30 minutes, this recipe is great for a weeknight meal! #soup #souprecipe #Italianweddingsoup #onepot #30minutemeal #weeknight #dinner #easyrecipe #homemaderecipe
R

Italian Wedding Soup

This Honey Garlic Chicken is one incredible weeknight dinner idea. Juicy chicken coated and cooked with a glorious sauce made with soy, hoisin, garlic, honey and more! Toss it all in the slow cooker and let it do the work for you! #dinner #chicken #asian #honey #garlic #honeygarlic #easyrecipe #weeknight #slowcooker #crockpot
F

Honey Garlic Chicken

S

Swedish Meatballs

Opens in a new window Opens an external site Opens an external site in a new window
free e-book!

Download MY Free Recipe eBook!

Subscribe & receive my most popular recipes compiled into an easy ebook format!

get my copy!

Subscribe & Receive My Free Recipe Ebook!

As Featured On:

Back to Top

Recipes

Dinners

Appetizers

Desserts

Slow Cooker

Learn to Cook

Start Here

Tips & Tricks

e-Cookbook

Easy Recipes

  • About
  • Work With Me
  • Privacy
  • Contact
© 2023 The Chunky Chef
Site Credits Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled
Back to Top