About These Small Batch Cranberry Orange Muffins
The muffin base is soft and moist and studded with tart cranberry fruit. You can use fresh or dried cranberries in the recipe. And the muffin tops are the real star: tall, domed, and sprinkled with lots of granulated sugar for crunch and flavor. The best part? The recipe makes only 4 muffins, perfect for a small household!
These small batch cranberry orange muffins are a variation of the popular small batch blueberry muffin recipe on Hummingbird High (which was also featured in The New York Times!). I replaced the blueberries with dried cranberries and added both orange zest and extract to the batter for flavor. However, fear not! Despite these changes, these small batch cranberry orange muffins still have all the qualities you love.
@hummingbirdhigh #muffins #muffintop #bakingrecipe ♬ The Great British Bake Off – Tom Howe
Looking for more small batch muffin recipes? Check out these Small Batch Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Small Batch Blueberry Muffins, Small Batch Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, and Small Batch Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (and the just plain ol’ pumpkin muffins, too!).
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to make these small batch cranberry orange muffins, here’s your shopping list for the recipe:
Shopping List
- fresh oranges
- dried cranberries
- granulated sugar
- all-purpose flour
- baking powder
- kosher salt
- whole milk
- orange extract OR oil
- unsalted butter
- large eggs
- vegetable oil cooking spray
And let’s talk about some key ingredients and potential substitutions:
Ingredient Sources and Substitutions
- Dried Cranberries. Because fresh cranberries are usually so tart and sour on their own, dried cranberries are sold sweetened. However, this recipe already uses a lot of sugar for both the batter and muffin topping. Because of this, I recommend using dried cranberries that are unsweetened. I used these unsweetened dried cranberries from Amazon. I also recommend these Honestly Cranberry Unsweetened Dried Cranberries.
- All-Purpose Flour. You can use a 1-1 gluten free all purpose flour replacer to make the recipe gluten free. I like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour or King Arthur Flour Gluten Free All Purpose Flour.
- Kosher Salt. Kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes. But you can replace the kosher salt in the recipe with table salt. Just use half the amount listed in the recipe when you do!
- Whole Milk. In a pinch, 2% or skim milk will do just fine (though whole milk will yield the most flavorful muffins). You can also use a plant-based milk like any kind of nut or oat milk. Just note that flavorful milks like coconut or soy will make the muffins taste like them, too!
- Orange Extract/Oil. I’ve used generic orange extract from Safeway, and fancy orange extract from Frontier Co-Op and Nielsen-Massey. Maybe I’m a bad baker, but I couldn’t taste the difference! So just use whatever you have on hand or personally like best. That being said, I do have a recommendation for orange oil: Boyajian Pure Orange Oil. I use their lemon oil too (see: these Small Batch Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins) and love it! Just watch out—it’s on the pricey side. You can definitely find other orange oils on Amazon for cheaper. Just make sure they are food-grade. Orange oil for essential oils is NOT safe for consumption!
- Vegetable Oil Cooking Spray. These muffins work best with a neutral oil cooking spray like canola or vegetable oil. I have no idea why, but the muffins have a tendency to get stuck to the pan with coconut oil and avocado oil sprays. Trust me—I’ve tried both! I also recommend using a flour-based spray like Baker’s Joy or Pam. These are neutral oil cooking sprays with flour to make baked goods release from pans even easier.
Can I use fresh cranberries in this small batch cranberry orange muffin recipe?
Absolutely! In fact, I recommend it. Using fresh cranberries will lead to a fresher, moister muffin that’s less susceptible to burning in the oven.
If you use fresh cranberries, there’s no need to change anything about the recipe. However, you may want to skip soaking the cranberries in juice. It won’t be necessary to soak the fresh fruit. You may also need to add a few minutes to the Bake Time. It’s likely that the muffins will bake for 22 to 24 minutes, as opposed to the 20 to 22 minutes listed in the recipe below.
Can I use frozen cranberries in this small batch cranberry orange muffin recipe?
Technically yes, but I don’t recommend it.
Per the Baker’s Tips in the yellow box below, the secret to super tall and domed muffin tops starts with your ingredients. If any of them are colder than room temperature, your muffins won’t rise and dome as well as mine did. Furthermore, using frozen cranberries straight from the freezer has a tendency to make these muffins stick to the pan.
That being said, you can use frozen cranberries in this recipe. However, you’ll need to prep them by thawing them and making sure they’re completely at room temperature before using them in this recipe. As the cranberries thaw, they’ll release liquid. Dump that liquid out before using it in the recipe.
You may also want to skip soaking the thawed cranberries in the orange juice. It won’t be necessary to moisten the fruit!
How To Make The Recipe
Here are the basic steps to make small batch cranberry orange muffins from scratch:
First, prep the ingredients.
- Prep all the ingredients. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
For this recipe, it’s especially important that you pay attention to the temperatures of the ingredients as they are listed in the recipe. That means bringing the milk, butter, and egg down to room temperature. Using cold ingredients will lead to muffins that won’t rise and dome as well as mine. Additionally, your muffins are more likely to get stuck in the pan! Be sure to check out the baker’s notes below for more information.
Next, make the muffin batter.
- Start combining the ingredients for use in the muffin batter. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
Unlike my other muffin recipes, the ingredients for these small batch cranberry orange muffins need a little more prep! Specifically, I instruct you to make orange sugar by rubbing together the sugar and fresh orange zest. Then, I also instruct you to soak the dried cranberries in freshly squeezed orange juice. Doing these things ensures a super flavorful muffin infused with orange throughout all its ingredients! The orange juice also allows the dried cranberries to reabsorb some moisture, leading to extra moist muffins. - Make the muffin batter. (Work Time: 10 minutes)
After that, the muffin batter comes together in just 10 minutes. Simply cream together the butter, sugar, and egg, then add the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients in two parts, followed by the dried cranberries. Don’t forget to strain the cranberries from the orange juice! Using the juice might cause your muffins to be raw or sink in the middle. - Rest the muffin batter. (Rest Time: 1 hour)
Unfortunately, you’ll need to rest the muffin batter at room temperature for 1 hour before baking. So plan ahead! Check out the FAQ below for more information on why the batter needs to rest.
Finally, bake the muffins.
- Assemble the muffins. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
One of the secrets to super tall and domed muffins is to fill up each cavity in the muffin pan with a generous amount of batter. Using the right tools will make the job go by quicker and faster—be sure to check out the baker’s notes for links to my favorite batter scooping tools!
Finally, take note that you’re going to use a slightly odd technique to fill the muffin pan. The recipe below instructs you to fill every other cavity with batter. You can see a visual of what I mean in this GIF. Why the odd placement? Because the muffin tops spread far and wide as they bake. If you fill the the muffin pan the conventional way, the tops will spread and stick to each other. - Bake the muffins. (Bake Time: 20 minutes)
These small batch cranberry orange muffins bake for between 20 to 22 minutes. Note that if you’ve replaced part of the all-purpose flour with an alternative flour, you may need to adjust Bake Time. Check out the ingredients section above for more specifics.
Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ
Can I use muffin liners for these small batch cranberry orange muffins?
Yes, but with reservations. You’ll still need to spray the outer rims of each cavity with cooking spray to prevent the muffins from sticking to the pan. The bottom of your muffins will also have a slightly different texture than mine—they’ll be softer.
Why do I need to rest the muffin batter for an hour?
This small batch cranberry orange muffin recipe instructs you to rest the batter after making for one hour at room temperature. Technically, this step is optional. You can bake the batter immediately after making and end up with some pretty damn good muffins. But if you want super domed muffins with seriously tall tops, rest the batter for an hour! This will allow the flour to hydrate and absorb the liquids in the batter more fully, leading to taller domes. During the resting process, the gluten strands in the batter relax, leading to more tender and fluffy baked goods. You can read more about the science in this Kitchn article.
When resting your muffin batter, don’t stick the batter in the fridge. Chilled batter will cause the muffins to stick in their cavities. In fact, make sure ALL your ingredients are at room temperature before using in the recipe. Again, this is one of the secrets to super tall muffin tops! Don’t miss the baker’s notes section below for more information.
Can I fill ALL the cavities in the muffin pan with batter? Why do you only fill every other one?
It’s best if you follow the recipe instructions exactly as they are written, especially when it comes to filling the muffin pan. Why? The tops of the muffins spread so much that if you fill each single cavity, they’ll spread into one another and get stuck, creating one giant muffin top mass. The empty cavity in between each muffin prevents that from happening.
Help! My muffin tops didn’t spread as much as yours. What did I do wrong?
This small batch cranberry orange muffin recipe instructs you to sprinkle 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar over each muffin before baking. Did you skimp or skip the sugar? The sugar is what causes the muffin tops to spread—using an amount less than what’s listed in the recipe would lead to the same results.
Similarly, did you use a different type of other sugar other than granulated sugar? Other sugars like brown sugar, coconut sugar, demerara sugar, and sanding sugar don’t enable the muffin tops to spread as well as granulated sugar.
Help! My muffins got stuck in the pan—only the tops came off. What did I do wrong?
This small batch cranberry orange muffin recipe instructs you to wait until the muffins have cooled to room temperature before attempting to unstick them from the pan. Did you try and turn out the muffins while they were still warm? Because these muffins are so top-heavy, you’ll run the risk of accidentally pulling the tops and bottoms apart if the cake is still warm! Wait until they are cooled completely before turning them out of the pan.
Once they’ve cooled, don’t just pull them out of the pan by their tops. The best way to unstick them is to use a metal offset spatula. Run the spatula underneath the entirety of each muffin top to unstick each one completely. Then, working one muffin at a time, use the offset spatula to tilt the muffin slightly on its side with the muffin top to enable you to wiggle your fingers underneath the muffin and lift it from the bottom.
Can you freeze cranberry orange muffins?
Yes, but with reservations. You can freeze any leftover muffins by wrapping them individually in plastic wrap and freezing for up to 3 months. To thaw, transfer to the refrigerator the night before you’re planning on eating the muffin. Rewarm in the microwave or the oven before serving.
However, in general I don’t recommend freezing the muffins. Once frozen and thawed, the muffins will no longer have their crispy tops.
Best Recipe Tips
Ingredient Tip
- Pay attention to the temperatures of the ingredients as they are listed in the recipe (please don’t miss this—they’re even written bold). The secret to super tall and domed muffin tops starts with your ingredients. If any of them are colder than room temperature, your muffins won’t rise and dome as well as mine did.
Equipment Tip
- For this recipe, tools are important. You’ll need two muffin tins, a 1-tablespoon OR a 3-tablespoon cookie dough scoop, and an offset spatula (preferably with a short, metal blade). The cookie dough scoops are for filling each cavity with muffin batter—to get tall domes, you’ll need to fill each one with SIX tablespoons of batter. It works best if you’re precise. Anything more will cause the muffins to overflow, and anything less will result in squat muffins. You’ll then need the offset spatula to “unstick” the wide muffin tops from the pan.
Baking Tip
- If you have a convection oven, now is the time to use it! When I was researching muffin recipes for #weeknightbakingbook, I discovered that muffins dome really well when first baked at a high temperature like 425°F. Doing so encourages the baking powder in the batter to react faster, causing the muffins to rise more quickly in the oven. These recipes then instruct you to lower the oven temperature to 350°F to prevent the muffins from burning and drying out. It’s a lot to keep track of. So instead, I baked the muffins at 400°F and found that it worked just as well, but found that it worked even better on the convection setting (as the convection fan was more effective in getting heat evenly and consistently between the muffin tin cavities).
Get the Recipe: Small Batch Cranberry Orange Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
For the Small Batch Cranberry Orange Muffins
- 1 large orange
- ½ cup (3.5 ounces or 99 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups (5 ounces or 142 grams) dried cranberries
- 1 ¼ cups (5.65 ounces or 160 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ cup (2 ounces or 57 grams) whole milk, at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon orange extract OR oil
- 4 Tablespoons (2 ounces or 57 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
Assembly
- canola or vegetable oil cooking spray
- 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
- dried cranberries, for garnish
Equipment
- a Microplane grater
- a slotted spoon OR a fine-mesh sieve
- a muffin tin
- a 1-Tablespoon OR 3-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop
Instructions
For the Small Batch Cranberry Orange Muffins
- Make the orange sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and orange zest. Use a Microplane grater to zest the orange over the sugar; then, use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar. This will infuse the sugar with oils from the zest.
- Soak the dried cranberries in orange juice. Place the cranberries in a small, shallow bowl. Slice the orange in half and squeeze the orange over the cranberries, soaking the cranberries in its juice. Toss the cranberries until completely moistened.
- Prep the rest of the dry and wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk and the orange extract/oil.
- Beat the sugar, butter, and egg. Add the butter to the stand mixer bowl and beat on medium-high until light, fluffy, and doubled in volume, 2 to 3 minutes, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl as necessary. Reduce the mixer to low and add the egg.
- Mix in the dry and wet ingredients, then the cranberries. With the mixer still on low, add the the dry ingredients in three equal parts, alternating with the wet ingredients in two parts. Beat until just combined, then scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, then beat on low for an additional 30 seconds. With the mixer on low, use a slotted spoon (or, use a fine-mesh sieve to strain out the cranberries from the orange juice) to scoop the cranberries into the batter and mix until evenly incorporated, another 30 seconds.
- Rest the batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Prep the oven and muffin pan. While the batter rests, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F using the convect setting (if possible). Prepare a muffin tin by spraying the inside and border of every other cavity in the muffin tin generously with cooking spray. But note that you’ll only need to prep 4 cavities total—there’s no need to spray the other ones! If you’re using a standard muffin tin, position the pan so that its short side faces you and prep the center cavity of the top row, the outer two cavities of the second row, and the center cavity of the third row. Click this link for a visual of this step.
- Fill the muffin pan. Use a 1-Tablespoon or 3-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop to fill each sprayed cavity with 6 Tablespoons of the batter. Sprinkle the top of each cavity, aiming for the batter and avoiding the pan, with 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar and a couple of dried cranberries each. Pour warm water into the outer cavities of the muffin tin’s final row, filling them at least ⅔-rds of the way up.
- Bake the muffins. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until the muffins are domed and golden brown around the edges. A skewer inserted into the center of a muffin should come out with a few crumbs attached.
- Cool the muffins. Cool the muffins in their muffin tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then use an offset spatula to run underneath the edges of the muffin tops to prevent them from sticking in the pan. Be careful to just run the offset spatula under the edges—you don't want to accidentally cut into the muffin bottom and decapitate the muffin from its top! After unsticking the muffin tops, keep cooling the muffins in the tins completely to room temperature. DO NOT TRY AND TURN THE MUFFINS OUT WHILE THEY ARE STILL WARM. Because these muffins are so top-heavy, you’ll run the risk of accidentally pulling the tops and bottoms apart if the cake is still warm! Wait until they are cooled completely before turning them out of the pan. Run the offset spatula underneath each muffin top once more and gently tilt the muffin upwards to turn it out of the pan, lifting each one from its base.
- Serve and store. Serve warm, or at room temperature. The muffins are best on the day that they’re made, but can be individually wrapped in plastic and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
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This looks very yummy. Can I make this in a loaf pan? Would you double or triple the recipe? Any adjustment to the baking temperature and time? Thanks very much.
I’m sorry, I don’t know—I’ve only ever made this recipe as muffins! I suspect you’d need to double the recipe though since it only makes about 1.5 cups of batter as is. Most loaf pan recipes are typically made with 3 to 6 cups of batter: https://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html
Made these today and they turned out awesome! I’m the only person in my house who eats sweets, so I love these small batch recipes. I prefer smaller muffin tops (I’m weird, I know) so I split this into 6 muffins instead of 4, and that worked out perfectly with each cup filled right to the top.
I didn’t have any orange oil so instead I turned the orange sugar into an oleosacchrum by muddling the orange zest plus the peels of a whole lemon with the sugar and letting it macerate with the sugar for a couple hours. This technique releases a ton of citrus oil (at least a 1/4 tsp if not more!) and the end result was definitely very citrusy, so I’d recommend this for anyone else who doesn’t keep a lot of flavors on hand. I removed the lemon peels at the end which took about 10 grams of sugar with them, so I topped it off with plain sugar to get back to 99 grams.
The only change I would make in the future is that I would put more than a couple cranberries on the top, because the ones on top look really cute! I also put turbinado sugar on top and the combination made for a really lovely, crunchy top.
Thanks for the great recipe!
Hello! I usually buy orange cranberry muffins from a local store here in PA which are very good! However, they are not always in stock. So, I’ve decided to find a good recipe and make my own.
These are very good! But I also got 6 muffins using a regular muffin tin. I’d suggest making these in a jumbo muffin tin to get 4 out of them.
Personally, I would slightly reduce the orange zest just a bit as well as reduce the cranberries to maybe 1 cup – 1/8 cup. That’s just my personal preference but they are still very good as is! 🙂
I am also wondering if Grand Marnier or Cointreau would also work instead of or with the orange juice?
Btw, the link for your muffin tin only takes you to the main Williams Sonoma site and not to the exact muffin tin in question. I forgot to mention that earlier.
I also suggest adding a “Go To Top” link like you’ve added like the “Jump To Recipe” link on the right side of the site to make the site more user-friendly. 😉
Geez, sorry! I also forgot to mention that I’ve used Fiori Di Sicilia oil from King Arthur Flour for the oil:
https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/fiori-di-sicilia
These muffins were well received in my house. They looked very nice. I did get five muffins instead of four. I did measure the batter too. I did not have orange oil and I used vanilla instead. I read through the entire post which is the most informative recipe post that I have ever seen. I used fresh cranberries.
My comment is that I hate the format that this recipe is presented in. I have wanted to make these muffins for about two weeks now and can’t. Every single time I try to utilize the recipe I can’t even see it. Where is the ingredient list? I don’t know. The recipe freezes consistently and takes me back to the top. Over and over. So I decide to screen shot the individual instructions. Have been doing that for twenty minutes now. But I keep having to redo because of the amount of pop ups that are blocking the instructions. So…. One last chance to make this recipe and find the actual ingredient list in this recipe novella and voila. Can’t locate ingredients but I managed to find a place to leave you a message. This recipe really does look great and I’d love to make it.