Fresh Cranberry Orange Muffins
These cranberry muffins will be your family's new favorite! They're so fluffy and delicious. Plus they're made with wholesome ingredients!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
These fluffy cranberry orange muffins will make your house smell like the holidays! I hope they become your new favorite holiday muffin recipe. They’re fluffy and moist and delicious—everything I want a muffin to be.
These muffins are bursting with fresh cranberry and orange flavor. This recipe calls for fresh cranberries, which are generally available in United States grocery stores from October or November through December. You can also use frozen cranberries, but I don’t recommend dried cranberries here.
These muffins are made with wholesome ingredients like whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt. They’re naturally sweetened with honey or maple syrup. You can keep those details to yourself, though—no one will guess that these muffins are healthier than most.
You can easily mix these together by hand. No mixer required. Serve them for breakfast or brunch, or bring them to your holiday parties!
It took me eight tries to get these muffins just right, but they were absolutely worth the effort. I’m sharing the recipe again because they’re just so wonderful this time of year.
Cranberry Orange Muffin Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make these cranberry-studded beauties:
Flour
I like to use white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour to make these muffins a little healthier. White whole wheat flour (available in health food stores or well-stocked grocery stores) is made with white wheat berries instead of red, and has a more mild flavor as a result. As long as your whole wheat flour hasn’t been sitting on the shelf too long, your muffins will not have a strong “whole wheat” taste. In fact, if your flour smells rancid or your muffins taste bitter, your flour has gone bad.
You can also use all-purpose flour for the most traditional muffin flavor and fluff. To make these muffins gluten free, choose Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten-free all-purpose blend. No adjustment to quantity needed with either one.
Tip: The proper way to measure flour is to spoon flour into your measuring cup and level off the top with a knife. Do not scoop flour into your cups, or you could end up with way too much flour, and dry/tough muffins.
Baking powder and baking soda
These are leavening agents, which help the muffins rise so they are light and fluffy. These ingredients are not the same thing and are not interchangeable, so be careful with your measurements!
Coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil or butter
Like all muffins, this recipe requires some fat to yield tender, rich and delicious results. I typically use virgin coconut oil and can hardly taste it. If you use olive oil, I recommend a mildly flavored one, like California Olive Ranch’s Everyday variety. You certainly can’t go wrong with unsalted butter.
Honey or maple syrup
Instead of sugar, these muffins are naturally sweetened with honey or maple syrup! These do impart some delicious flavor, so choose your favorite.
Eggs
Eggs also act as a leavener, helping the muffins rise while also imparting richness. If you have an egg allergy or you’re a vegan, you can substitute flax eggs (see recipe notes).
Greek yogurt
Yogurt replaces sour cream, but offers the same delicious richness and tang. Yum! Check the recipe notes for a buttermilk alternative (which can be made vegan).
Vanilla extract
You know, for some luscious vanilla flavor.
Orange zest
The zest of one orange to infuse these muffins with flavor. After you take the zest off the orange, you can slice it up and eat it. I do recommend buying on organic orange if you can find one, since pesticide residue sticks to the rind.
Fresh cranberries
One bag is more than enough. You’ll blitz these in the food processor before folding them into the batter. If you’re using frozen cranberries, do not thaw them before using. Blitz them in the food processor as directed and promptly fold them into the batter. If you have leftover cranberries, you can freeze them for up to one year.
Dried cranberries are not a good substitute for fresh cranberries, for reasons elaborated in the next section.
Turbinado (raw) sugar
This is optional, but I recommend it. Turbinado sugar is large crystal sugar that lends an irresistible sparkling, crunchy top to the muffins. I bet you could even take a tiny bag of raw sugar home from your local coffee shop!
Cranberry Orange Muffin Recipe Development
I thought this recipe was going to be so easy. Take my blueberry muffin recipe, substitute cranberries for the blueberries, add orange zest—done. Not so fast, Kate!
Problem: The fresh cranberries were so much bigger than blueberries and so tart that they left mouth-puckering polka dots in the muffins. Fortunately, I found a clue in America’s Test Kitchen’s cranberry muffin recipe.
Solution: Blitz the fresh cranberries in a food processor for a few seconds to break them up. That way, you get delicious little bits of cranberries in every bite. This also allowed me to double the amount of cranberries for maximum cranberry flavor.
Problem: The muffins were still far too tart, though (and I like tart).
Solution: To counteract the tartness of the cranberries, I added 1/4 cup more honey or maple syrup, which made these muffins perfectly sweet—not too much, not too little.
Problem: The extra moisture from the additional liquid sweetener made the muffins flatten out on the top. I wanted beautifully domed, fluffy muffins, so I tried decreasing the amount of yogurt, tweaking the baking powder and baking soda, and I was almost ready to give up…
Solution: I went back to the original formula and added 1/4 cup more flour. The muffins rose like a dream!
Eight tries later, I landed on perfect cranberry orange muffins! I hope you’ll make them while cranberries are still in season.
Watch How to Make Fluffy Cranberry Orange Muffins
Recommended Equipment
This section contains affiliate links.
USA-made muffin tin: This sturdy muffin tin bakes beautiful muffins and has a non-toxic, non-stick silicone coating. I never have to grease the cups!
11-cup food processor: This Cuisinart is not too big or too small, and blitzes the cranberries in five seconds.
Microplane: It’s so easy to remove the zest from citrus with this handy tool.
Love these muffins?
Here are more of my favorite naturally sweetened, whole-wheat muffin recipes!
- Healthy Apple Muffins
- Healthy Banana Muffins
- Healthy Blueberry Muffins
- Healthy Carrot Muffins
- Healthy Raspberry Muffins
- Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
- Healthy Zucchini Muffins
Please let me know how these muffins turn out for you in the comments! I love hearing from you, and hope the recipe is a big hit.
Fresh Cranberry Orange Muffins
These cranberry muffins will be your family’s new favorite! Don’t tell them the recipe calls for healthy ingredients. These fluffy muffins are bursting with fresh cranberry and orange flavor, plus they’re whole grain and naturally sweetened! Recipe yields 12 muffins.
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil or melted unsalted butter
- ¾ cup honey or maple syrup
- 2 eggs, preferably at room temperature
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt*
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Zest from 1 medium orange (about 1 teaspoon), preferably organic
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (also called raw sugar), for sprinkling on top
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease all 12 cups of your muffin tin or line them with papers, if necessary.
- In a food processor, process the cranberries for about 5 seconds, until they are broken into little bits (but not puréed—see photos). Set aside.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine.
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In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oil and honey and beat together with a whisk. Add the eggs and whisk to combine, then add the yogurt, vanilla and orange zest. Mix well.
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Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a big spoon, just until combined (a few lumps are ok). Gently fold the cranberry pieces into the batter.
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Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups (they will be quite full). Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with turbinado sugar. Bake the muffins for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
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Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool. You might need to run a butter knife along the outer edge of the muffins to loosen them from the pan. If you have leftover muffins, store them, covered, at room temperature for 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Freeze leftover muffins for up to 3 months.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my healthy blueberry muffins.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
These turned out great for me! I used all-purpose flour, 2/3 honey 1/3 maple syrup and didn’t have turbinado sugar for the tops, but they’re still lovely. My zest also worked out to >1 tsp. Yum!
This is exactly the type of recipe I was looking for, healthy! Can I make this into a loaf rather than muffins?
Hi Sara! I haven’t tried it with this one. But, I do know some of my other muffin recipes have been made into a loaf without issue. Time will increase, if it works, I’m not sure by how much.
Amazing recipe, the muffins turned out great!
These are amazing and slightly sweet. Perfection in every way!
Wonderful awesome recipe! Only change I made was to add 3.5oz (100g) of chopped dark chocolate (70% cacao). The tangy cranberries, bittersweet chocolate and orange undertones were a fabulous winning combination.
These were definitely winners. They had just the right level of sweetness and the flavors flavors were great. Thanks for perfecting the recipe for us!
Love all of your recipes and your cookbook! For this recipe, can I substitute dried cranberries instead of fresh? I have tons of dried cranberries in my pantry.
Hi! Unfortunately, this recipe was a bit tricky and worked best with fresh for me.
Any suggestions for making this into bread, standard load pan, instead of muffins?
Hi Jason, it would likely work just take more time. I’m not sure how much.
No joke I saw this recipe in the parking lot of the grocery store and went for it yesterday!!! I made them with the Bob Mills GF flour and took the advice to spoon the flour into the measuring cup rather than using the measuring cup as the scoop. These are the best muffins I have made!!! Incredibly fluffy and tasty!!!
Can I substitute the white whole wheat flour with whole wheat pastry flour or almond flour? Trying to avoid a trip back to the store if possible!
Hi Megan, you can do whole wheat pastry flour, they will be extra light.
This is a great recipe and easy to follow. Muffins turned out just the way I expected/hoped, but I did zest 2 oranges to add. As a recipe tinkerer myself, I appreciate the notes on recipe development! My 3yo twins gobbled their muffins with gusto this morning, so you know they’re good.
Hooray! I love that. Thank you for your comment and review, Kristen.
I have made cranberry bread and muffins using the same recipe for many years. I decided to try something different. I used your recipe and won’t be going back to my old one. I always use whole wheat flour and I like using Greek yogurt so this sounded good to me. Instead of using orange zest I put 2 peeled baby oranges in the food processor with the cranberries so the muffins have bits of orange in them, too. I also added some stevia since my experience has told me the yogurt and cranberries need more sweetener for my taste. I also added orange flavoring. I used white ww flour and nonfat Greek yogurt and canola oil. The texture was wonderful and they taste great! I make muffins often and share them with other people. I’m sure these will be a hit and I will be making them frequently especially during cranberry season. I enjoyed reading your development of the recipe and I will be trying more of your recipes. Thank you.
These muffins are everything advertised and I will definitely be making them again. I inadvertently added the zest of two oranges when I had a mental hiccup (mixup with an unrelated recipe on the Thanksgiving menu!), but we happen to like a stronger citrus component so that was perfectly fine for my household.
I baked it in paper cups in a medium-dark muffin tin (without reducing the oven temperature) and would caution that this recipe is FAR more sensitive than any other I’ve ever baked in the same tin, so I had some challenges in trying to balance getting the centers cooked, the top having some color, and not overcooking the bottom/sides.
I’m happy they still turned out for you, Janet! Thank you for your details.
WOW….this week I’ve made your tahini dressing, sunflower seed garlic and dill hummus (BOMB) and the mushroom gravy! All I can say is my 28 yr old daughter and I are saving these as keepers! I’ve used many of your recipes over the last few years but never commented till now! we are gluten and dairy, meat, oil free. Your recipes are quick, easy and for me as the foodie, I can tweak an ingredient (if necessary!) Thanks for the awesome website and recipes and keep them coming!! This year has been so weird so cooking new things has/is keeping us sane…not to mention healthy! Much Love!!
Debbie and Sage
You are on a mission, and I love it! Thank you for sharing all that you have enjoyed, Debbie. I appreciate it.
I just made these for our Saturday breakfast today and they were great! I used half AP and half whole wheat flour. Loved how they turned out. My cranberries weren’t as tart as they usually are (how, I’m not sure??) so even with two cups, they weren’t that tart. I might make them with more next time, if they aren’t that tart again. Thanks for all your great recipe testing!! Definitely a keeper recipe.
Made these this morning and they are delicious!! Perfect way to use up a bag of leftover cranberries from Thanksgiving. Used your suggested vegan substitutes because didn’t have yogurt on hand. Turned out great.
Love all your muffin recipes. First time trying this one and it did not disappoint! Great way to use up some fresh cranberries.
Kate, these are INCREDIBLE!! Chopping up the cranberries in the food processor is such a game changer for the muffins. I love the result! Thank you so much. Now I have a reason to go crazy and buy all the cranberries this season!
I’m excited you think so, Brianna! Thank you for taking the time to review.
After making your delicious healthy blueberry muffins several times, I tried the cranberry orange version and they are equally as delicious! The hint of orange zest and tart cranberry flavors really go well together! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for trying another muffin recipe and for your review, Juliana! I appreciate it.
I’m a fan of weighing ingredients. Kate, could you give me a weight (in grams) for a cup of whole wheat flour? This varies from one web site to the next, depending on how the baker measures their flour. Even if you didn’t want to give ingredient weights throughout your recipes, if you noted this somewhere on your site it would be useful. Thanks!
Hi Deb, sorry I don’t have the weight for you on this one. I appreciate your feedback, Deb.
Super delicious! I used WW pastry flour, maple syrup, added a healthy handful of chopped walnuts and topped with date sugar. Thanks!
You’re welcome, Suzanne!
Perfect use for my extra cranberries. Used buttermilk because I had that to use up too and they came out perfect! I didn’t quite believe that they should be so full so I made 15 but next time will just load up the 12 muffin cups (like you said to do!!) so they’re nice and puffy. Love them!
I am excited to make this recipe. I do have buttermilk, but was wondering if whole milk ricotta might taste good in this recipe instead of the buttermilk. Thoughts?
Hi Melissa, I’m not sure it will react the same for this one without trying it.
Delicious! I made these with bread flour (that’s what I had on hand) and buttermilk. I also added toasted and chopped pecans. I love how the cranberries are chopped for this recipe! Every bite had flavors of cranberry, pecan, and a hint of orange. These are out of this world. I’ll definitely be making as part of Christmas breakfast this year .
Superb! A perfect way to use up leftover fresh cranberries during the holiday season.
I used regular whole wheat flour, honey, and olive oil, and I used heavy whipping cream rather than Greek yogurt. The muffins turned out wonderfully soft, moist, and flavorful. Great recipe!
Hi. My dad bought a bunch of cranberries, so I tried this. I didn’t have yogurt, so I substituted coconut milk, and I didn’t have an orange, so I used about 3 tablespoons of tangerine juice. it took 2 times longer to bake, and the edges were almost burnt, and the middle was slightly undercooked. the flavor was tangy, but not so good. Will try again with real yogurt.
Hi Hillary, I’m sorry to hear that. It may have been the coconut milk since it has more liquid than yogurt.
These are soooo good! The flavor, texture are spot on! Thanks for another wonderful recipe, Kate!
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed, Sandy.
Yum! I used frozen cranberries (gave them a blitz in the food processor straight out of freezer and ended up with some chunks and some whole) and all purpose flour. Turned out great.
I made this recipe as written (because I ALWAYS trust C&K recipes), only adding some mini chocolate chips. 10/10 new FAVORITE muffin recipe! They are perfectly moist and fluffy. I used whole milk Greek yogurt. Can’t wait to make these for our family brunch on Christmas!
Thank you for sharing, Shannon! I’m happy you enjoyed it.
These Muffins are the best I have made…
Absolutely no changes except I used sour cream as I had no yogurt..
Would like to try your carrot muffins
Hi Kate, can I sub an almond or coconut flour? Thank you Happy holidays, all stay safe
Hi! I wouldn’t recommend those flours. You can follow my How to Make Oat Flour guide if you need to make them gluten free.
Did you add extra 1/4 cup flour to ingredients list? My muffens came out flat. I used white whole wheat.
Hi Linda, Did you use two cups? If you didn’t level your flour you would have too much and likely be dense, or flatter.
Wouldn’t make this again. Lacked flavor and wasn’t worth the effort.
Hi Adora, I’m sorry to hear that. I appreciate your feedback. What flavor did you think these ones were missing? This recipe I find has so much flavor in the muffins with the orange.
Hi Kate – We thought it was really lacking in flavor. I’ve made other orange cranberry recipes where the orange flavor was able to shine through either with juice from the orange in the batter or with an orange glaze after baking the muffins/bread. Hope that helps.
Hi Adora, thank you for your feedback I wonder if your orange was just lacking. Thanks again!
I love this recipe! I’ve made them as muffins but have also put it in a round cake pan (baked a little longer) and when cool put a paper snowflake on it as a stencil and dusted with some powdered sugar. It made a tasty, really pretty and healthier cake!
Oh, these hit the spot! I had to make some slight tweaks due to some ingredient constraints, but they came out impressively domed, marvelously fluffy, moist, and a bit chewy on the edges. It’s my favorite muffin texture. Thank you for the recipe! Happy New Year!
I just made your muffins! They are fantastic! Couldn’t taste the orange as much as I would like but love the softness. Thank you for sharing. Oh and I added pumpkin spice
I just baked the cranberry orange muffins (with 1/2 nut flour) and they are so delicious! Thank you for a great recipe I’ll use again!
Great, Patti! Thank you for sharing.
So good! I even subbed the oil for applesauce and it turned out so good!
I made these today—YUM! I was amazed at how fluffy they were. I did use extra cranberries (i needed to use them up) and extra orange zest. White whole wheat flour, maple syrup, and a little sour cream rounded out my choices. I didn’t quite have enough yogurt, so added the sour cream to get to a cup. I used canola oil, as that was what I had, and it turned out fine.
Great to hear! Thank you for taking the time to review, Mrs. Plum.
Loved these! I used half whole wheat, half all purpose flour, maple syrup, extra zest. They weren’t sweet enough for my tastes (though the tartness of the cranberries is delicious) so I made a glaze with powdered sugar, milk, and orange zest. Yum!!
Thank you for sharing! I’m happy you enjoyed them.
These were delicious, my 1st grader had several for breakfast! I made them with GF flour and substituted yogurt with 2/3 Cup of kefir + 1 tsp vinegar. Thank you for the recipe!
These were fabulous…wondering if I can substitute lemon for the orange?
Hi! You can try it. I would be interest to hear what you think!
Loved this recipe! I followed everything precisely, but for some reason it did come out tasting a little bit egg-y. It wasn’t so overwhelming that it ruined it (we all loved them!), but I was able to get that taste every few bites. Does anyone know why this may have happened?
Hi Mel, I’m sorry to hear that. Did you use fresh eggs and were they on the large side?
Hi! Could I use fresh whole cranberries?
Hi Elise! I’m confused as to what the question is as it calls for fresh cranberries.
Hi sorry I meant like just use whole ones! But made these with half of them chopped up, and half whole (I like the pop of sour) and they were AMAZING. Love this recipe :)
These were amazing!! So fluffy and bursting with flavor. Will definitely be making again
The cranberry orange muffins were fabulous! I squeezed about 1/3 of the orange into my buttermilk (I made dairy free with almond milk for my daughter)
I added chocolate chips. I also used frozen cranberries (dont defrost) I baked another extra minute or two until my “toothpick” came out clean.
They are my new favorite muffins and that’s hard to choose, as all your muffin recipes are great
I have your cookbook and use it constantly. Thanks for all the fantastic recipes! :)
Can you use dried cranberries?
You need fresh here, Beverky.
I am *obsessed* with these muffins. So is my husband. I bake different types of muffins to have on hand pretty much weekly and this recipe is a top favorite for sure. (As a side note I bake usually with spelt flour- they still turn out like a dream). Thank you for this amazing recipe! To those wondering if zesting and blitzing cranberries and the whole shabang is worth it, I say- make these! You will be so happy you did!
These are really good!
I’m happy you enjoyed them, Cali! Thank you for your review.
Hi Kate,
Will definately be trying this one. I have made several of your muffin recipes and they did not disappoint. On the white whole wheat flour, I have been buying Bobs Organic Ivory Whole Wheat flour for years and absolutely love the product but recently confirmed they have discontinued the product (at least in Canada). Wondering if you (or any of your readers) can share what brand you/they use as I havent been able to source another brand of white/ivory whole wheat. Thanks for your time and trusted recipes! All the best.
Holly