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Get the Recipe: Small Batch Cranberry Orange Muffins Recipe

This small batch recipe makes only FOUR cranberry orange muffins! Each small batch cranberry orange muffin has a signature sparkling, sugary domed muffin top. The sponge is packed with lots of orange flavor, thanks to both fresh orange zest and orange juice soaked dried cranberries in the batter.
(5 stars) 7 reviews

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.

Notes

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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).
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