Recipe: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Cranberry Orange Muffins

One of my favorite types of muffins when I ate gluten was cranberry orange. I don’t think I ever baked them at home, but I always bought them at bakeries and grocery stores or ordered them when having brunch out when available. For whatever reason, I don’t remember ever making a gluten-free version of cranberry orange muffins which is quite odd considering how much I enjoyed them before. I have made some really tasty gluten-free cranberry orange quick breads – just not any muffins.

Something about our unseasonably and lovely spring time weather inspired me to whip up a batch of muffins last weekend. I had dried cranberries from Trader Joe’s on hand (sweetened, but not with corn syrup) so I looked for a muffin recipe online. I found this highly rated recipe on Food.com and easily converted it to be gluten-free. This recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free and low in fat, but a bit high in sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten-free flour (I used Jules gluten-free)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 t. baking powder
• pinch of baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 egg
• 5 T. orange juice
• 1 T. plain olive oil (do not use EVOO)
• 2 T. unsweetened applesauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine dry ingredients and stir with a whisk.
3. Beat egg, orange juice, oil and applesauce together.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and blend well.
5. Fold in cranberries
6. Spoon batter into greased mini muffin pan (I used greased paper liners).
7. Fill liners 3/4 full.
8. Bake for approximately 10 minutes until cake tester (or toothpick) inserted into the middle comes out clean.
9. Serve warm with lemon curd or butter.

The recipe yields approximately 22 mini muffins. Variations: use canola oil instead of plain olive oil. Add orange zest or a small dash of orange extract to the batter for a stronger orange flavor.

The muffins not only rose incredibly well, they were light and fluffy and I was very impressed with the look of them to say the least. I just hoped they tasted as good as they looked right out of the oven. After letting the muffins cool a bit, I tried one with a little butter on it. It was simply scrumptious! Since I made them the day before we were having them with brunch, I had to stop at only one.

To reheat the muffins for brunch, I lightly wrapped them in foil and put them in  a 350 degree toaster oven for about five minutes. It seemed almost like the muffins were even lighter than they’d been the day before. Instead of butter, I used some lemon curd on the muffins and that was the perfect accompaniment for them. I could have eaten a dozen of the fluffy treats, but stopped at three. Three mini muffins equal about one regular size muffin. At least, that is what my husband said as he scarfed down six muffins (also with lemon curd on them) himself. Then he ate two more muffins unheated without anything on them. He had five more muffins the next day and skipped his weekday ritual of cereal for breakfast.

Even though I didn’t get around to freezing any of these wonderful breakfast treats, all the baked goods I’ve made with Jules gluten-free flour before have frozen beautifully so I’m sure these will do fine too. I’m planning to make up a batch of regular sized muffins to freeze and pull out as needed for weekend trips to the in-laws, etc. And apparently, I’ll have to take enough to share with my husband.