Cranberry Orange Mini Muffins

These cranberry orange mini muffins are perfect right at the tail end of cranberry season. Each mini muffin has one whole cranberry in the center and is topped with a bright pink orange-infused sugar.

The tart cranberry is super satisfying and even better contrasted with the sweetness from the orange!

With their bright red cranberry centers, these orange cranberry mini muffins are the perfect Valentine's Day treat!

Cranberry season ends in November but you'll often find these bright red berries on sale through January as grocery stores sell off the ones they bought ahead of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cranberries freeze really well — buy some extra and you'll have them when Valentine's Day rolls around.

This recipe was inspired by my lemon blueberry mini muffins. For Valentine's Day, pair them with homemade cocktails or sodas made with this strawberry simple syrup.

🥘 Ingredients

These orange cranberry mini muffins need a few special ingredients, but none that should be too hard to find! As always, I recommend weighing the ingredients for best results. See recipe card for specific quantities.

• Orange zest - Fresh is best! Use a microplane or the small side of a box grater. You'll need the zest of one whole orange, but half of it will be used in the batter and the other half in the sugar you sprinkle on top of the muffins.
• Buttermilk - I know it's not the easiest to find but it's totally worth it for super tender baked goods. If you really, really, really can't find buttermilk see the FAQ below for some alternate suggestions.
• Eggs - One large egg! Get it to room temperature quickly by submerging it in warm water for 5-10 minutes before cracking it open.
• Cranberries - Fresh is best! You can use frozen ones, but let them defrost first and dry them off before pushing them into the muffin batter.
• Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt in all of my recipes. If you're measuring by volume, use half of another brand. If you're measuring by weight, you don't need to make any adjustments.
• Pink sanding sugar - I used bright pink and gold sugar sanding sugar I found at HomeGoods. The brand is Sugarwink and the color is "Heart of Gold," but I couldn't find them anywhere online. Others that will work are Fancy Sprinkles "Fairy Floss Sugar" or Wilton Pink Spring Sugar. Basically any sort of "sanding sugar" topping. You could also use plain granulated sugar or sparkling sugar rubbed with orange zest. (Bonus: Spicewalla has a cranberry orange sugar that you can use instead of rubbing the sugar with orange zest!)

🥣 Instructions

We're following standard muffin procedure for these cranberry orange mini muffins! Start by whisking your dry ingredients (minus the sugar) together in a bowl. You want to get everything evenly distributed; this will cut down on how much mixing you have to do later.

In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sugar, egg, orange zest, and vanilla. Then drizzle in the melted butter, whisking constantly as you do.

TIP: It's very important that the buttermilk and egg are at room temperature before you whisk in the melted butter. If the melted butter goes into cold buttermilk and cold egg, the butter will solidify and won't mix in smoothly.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a spatula or a dough whisk to gently fold them together. The goal is to combine the ingredients in as few movements as possible.

Why? If you over mix the batter, the flour will start to develop a gluten network which means tough muffins! Stop mixing as soon as the ingredients come together and no dry bits of flour remain.

It's okay if the muffin batter is a little lumpy — the lumps will bake out in the oven.

Cover and let the muffin batter rest for 30-60 minutes at room temperature. This gives the baking powder time to activate. You'll notice when you come back to the muffin batter after it rests it has a thicker, airier consistency — you can see bubbles in it as you scoop!

Baking powder is double acting — it reacts first in contact with liquid and again in the heat of the oven. Letting the batter rest helps fully hydrate the baking powder and helps your muffins rise higher in the oven. This is a tip I picked up from Hummingbird High's sky high blueberry muffin recipe, and while these muffins won't rise nearly that high, the resting period will give them an extra boost and a nicer texture.

Use a 2-teaspoon scoop to portion the batter into a lined mini muffin pan. Scrape the scoop flat on the rim of the bowl as you scoop and you should get exactly 24 mini muffins.

Press a cranberry into the center of each muffin. It should go almost all the way to the bottom but not quite. Then use a toothpick to push, press, and twirl the batter from the sides over the top of each cranberry to hide them inside.

In a small bowl, use your hand to rub the remaining orange zest into the pink sanding sugar. Wear gloves for this step if you're worried about the sugar dyeing your hands pink! If you don't have pink sanding sugar, regular granulated sugar is fine too.

Then top each cranberry orange mini muffin with about ¼ teaspoon of the sugar mixture. Use the back of the measuring spoon to push the sugar around to get an even coating on top of each mini muffin.

Bake the cranberry orange mini muffins for 13-15 minutes at 400°F. They won't brown much on top (you wouldn't be able to see it through the pink sugar topping if they did!). They should rise up and dome on top.

If you insert a toothpick into the side of one, it should come out clean. You know, as long as you didn't accidentally poke into a cranberry!

Let them cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

👩🏻‍🍳 Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

• DO NOT OVER MIX. This is the biggest mistake people make with muffin recipes. When you mix the batter together you're starting to create gluten strands — those gluten strands tighten up and create tough muffins with air trapped inside. For tender muffins gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with slow, smooth strokes. Stop mixing as soon as there are no dry bits in the bowl and walk away. Don't worry about lumps, they'll bake out in the oven.
• Your liquid ingredients need to be at room temperature before you add the butter. If your eggs and buttermilk are cold when you add the melted butter, the melted butter will firm up and incorporate unevenly.
• To quickly get eggs to room temperature: Submerge the eggs in hot tap water for 5-10 minutes.
• NO BUTTERMILK? Use Buttermilk powder instead. Mix it in with the dry ingredients and use 57 grams (¼ cup) whole milk in place of the buttermilk. America's Test Kitchen even approves of this swap. I tested this myself and it worked remarkably well, way better than I expected!

📖 Recipe