Easy Cranberry White Chocolate Muffins Recipe
This recipe will help you to create Cranberry White Chocolate muffins. These are light, fluffy, peppered with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips in amongst an orange flavoured chocolate cake. Enjoy these muffins plain and unadorned or dusted with a little icing sugar, they really don’t need anything more.
Servings: 12 muffins
Equipment
- 12 muffin cases or use silicone cases instead
- 1 12 hole muffin pan
- 2 mixing bowls
- 1 mixing spoon
- 1 measuring spoons 1 set
- 1 digital scales for accurate measuring
- 1 set measuring cups if scales are unavailable
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plain flour
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup muscovado sugar
- 1/4 cup caster sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil use a neutral tasting oil such as sunflower oil
- 3/4 cup milk dairy milk, oat milk or almond milk all work in this recipe
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 360F/180C/160C Fan. Line the muffin pan with the muffin cases.
- Measure all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. (all-purpose flour (plain flour), baking power, cocoa, salt, chocolate chips, cranberries and the two sugars) and mix them together.
- Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl. (the eggs, milk (dairy or non-dairy), the oil and the orange extract together in another bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix only enough so that there are no dry pieces of flour stuck on the side of the bowl. A metal spoon can be very useful for this. This shouldn't take very long, you are not looking for a silky smooth batter. Lumpy is ok.
- Spoon the batter into the lined muffin pan. Fill the cups to 3/4 full.
- Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. Test for 'doneness' by inserting a toothpick into the centre of a muffin and then checking that it comes out clean with only 1 or 2 crumbs sticking to it. If there is still batter sticking to the toothpick then cook for 2 or 3 more minutes and check again.
- Once the muffins are baked through, take them our of the oven and place the tray on a cooling rack for 5 minutes before removing the muffins from the tray.
- Then take the muffins out of the pan and allow to finish cooling before dusting with icing sugar, an icing glaze or a chocolate drizzle.
- Enjoy !
Notes
Note: Nutritional Information is computer generated and is intended as a guideline only.
Tips for success
Measure your ingredients accurately for the best results. Use a set of digital scales if at all possible. Don’t overmix the batter. Only mix the ingredients together so that there are no dry floury bits left in the bowl. The batter may look a little lumpy but that is absolutely ok. Do not use a mixer for the final mixing. If you do, you risk overmixing the batter which has a detrimental effect on the flour. It can break down the gluten and potentially make your muffins a little dense and disappointing. Use a wooden or metal spoon. A metal spoon can be particularly good at scraping ingredients off the sides and bottom of the bowl. Bake as soon as possible after the dry and the wet ingredients are combined. If you leave the batter to sit whilst you do other things, you risk activating the raising agents in the batter. These may become exhausted by the time you do bake them. Set your oven temperature accurately and use an oven thermometer if you have one. It’s surprising how much domestic ovens can vary in how precise they are. Fill the muffins cup liners or silicone cups to ¾ full. This means that the muffins will rise beautifully and not overflow to give slightly odd tops. But even if they do, they’ll taste wonderful. Allow them to cool fully before decorating with any kinds of icing or melted chocolate toppings. Otherwise, you may find that it all becomes a bit messy. They’ll taste wonderful but it may not be quite what you intended. Variations These muffins are wonderful just as they are, fresh out of the oven. However, if you want to ring a few changes these are things that I’ve tried successfully with this recipe.- Add a simple icing glaze.
- Mix 3oz (85g) icing sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of orange juice and use to ice the muffins once they’re out of the oven and cooled slightly.
- Add 75g chopped pecans to the batter for a nice contrast in texture. Pecans are such a delicious sweet nut.
- Substitute dark or milk chocolate chips for the white chocolate. They taste wonderful.
- Drizzle with melted white chocolate for an interesting and delicious finish.
- Melt 50g of white chocolate in a microwave in five-second bursts. Stir until it is completely melted and then drizzle thinly over the tops of the muffins.
- Store in an airtight container and eat within two to three days.
- Freeze in air-tight containers or zip lock bags. Remove from the freezer when needed and thaw on the work surface. Warming them briefly in the oven or microwave will restore these muffins beautifully.
Did you make this? Mention @thesimplerkitchen or tag #thesimplerkitchen!
Nutrition
Serving: 1muffin | Calories: 295kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 30mg | Sodium: 195mg | Potassium: 104mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 67IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 88mg | Iron: 2mg
