Delicious & Bright Cranberry Orange Muffins

I feel like cranberries are the unsung hero of the fall baking world. Every time fall rolls around, I make my way down a pumpkin everything rabbit hole, and don’t emerge until Christmas haha!

So this year I wanted to give this fun little berry some attention! These are the best cranberry orange muffins, and secretly way healthier than your average muffin. The tartness and natural sweetness of the cranberries allows for way less sugar, especially combined with the bright flavor of orange zest! You can find fresh cranberries in the store between October and December, but if you want to make these muffins in the off-season, frozen cranberries will do the trick.

The super secret weapon of this healthy muffin recipe? Spices! Cinnamon and cardamom are both sweet tasting spices, with no impact on the nutritional content.

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In an effort to make a healthy muffin recipe, I also replaced half of the butter with coconut oil, to reap the benefits of this super healthy fat. The coconut taste doesn’t actually come through at all, so if you don’t love coconut, fear not! On the other hand, if you prefer to use all butter (or all coconut!), go for it!

Makes About 16 Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom 
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400, and grease a muffin tin. Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through salt and set aside. Combine the wet ingredients, zest through orange juice. Add the dry ingredients, stirring until the batter just comes together. The batter will be thick. Gently fold in the cranberries and pecans, and distribute the batter into the muffin tin. This recipe makes about 16 muffins. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the muffin tops spring back when touched.