Recipe Redo: Cranberry Orange Muffins with Streusel Topping

Around this time last year I posted a recipe for Cranberry Orange Bread and just the other day I had two of the essential ingredients leftover from Thanksgiving: cranberries and oranges! I remember the bread being truly moist and the marriage between cranberries and orange produced a muffin with a nice balance of sweetness and tartness. I was excited to revert back to that recipe and make some scrumptious muffins! But to my dismay that old recipe which may or may not still be on this blog (it is *blushes*) wasn't written properly. There seemed to be ingredients missing and misguided steps; for example there wasn't flour or sugar listed in the ingredients for the streusel topping! I felt pretty darn silly about that recipe and prayed that no one baked that bread and kind of overlooked the whole post. But I still really wanted to bake those muffins! So I began rewriting the recipe in hopes of fixing all it's boo-boos. 

Upon rewriting the new recipe I made a couple of modifications and used an egg and goat milk; but if I can remember correctly both of those ingredients can be successfully swapped with applesauce and non-dairy milk. Even though I was embarrassed by that past recipe, I don't regret posting it because it shows me that I'm still learning and that indeed is humbling! Having a blog has taught me that this is my own journey, and that it's okay to make mistakes and fix 'em. My mantra out of this experience is simply: I am a human being and it's okay to make mistakes; even in the things I'm passionate about. For the longest time I've been especially hard on myself with my cooking and wanting to everything to be perfect before I shared it with anyone else; but quite honestly perfect is boring and 9 out of 10 times my screw ups have left me with burning determination to whip up something better. As simple as this recipe may be I think it's better than the first bread I made. Maybe yesterday I'll want to improve it? Only time will tell my dears... In the meantime do me a favor and bake these muffins for yourself and let me know what you think! :)

Cranberry Orange Muffins with Streusel Topping

makes 16 medium sized muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup natural cane sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 medium oranges, zested and juiced (reserve half of zest for the streusel topping)

½ cup milk*

½ cup canola oil

1 large egg, room temperature*

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped

Streusel topping:

2 tablespoons butter or vegan shortening

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

Pinch of salt

Optional: ½ cup raw pecans, chopped                                                              

Notes: I used goat milk for this recipe but like I mentioned above any milk will do, and about ¼ cup applesauce will replace one large egg. Also if you prefer a sweeter more dessert like muffin add 1/4 cup more sugar to the batter.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tin with parchment liners. 

Streusel: In a small bowl mix with hands or a fork the shortening, flour, brown sugar, spices and salt until thoroughly combined. Add in the pecans, mix and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl beat together orange zest and juice, milk and eggs then mix in the canola oil and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients mixing until just moistened. Fold in the cranberries. Fill each muffin tin with 3 tablespoons of batter and sprinkle batter with about a tablespoon of streusel. Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned on top or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

xo Jessica

Banana and Cranberry Scones (free of eggs and dairy)

Sometimes I get into these overly energetic kicks where I feel like I’m on top of the world. I often feel like I can do a million things at once which vary from cooking, exercising and baking to washing my hair, etc. I have no idea what causes these unusual shots of energy but I never complain when I experience it! During one of these cycles of feeling giddy and productive, I wrote and baked a new recipe that I believe was quite successful. Vegan banana and cranberry scones! To be honest I don’t think I've ever eaten a scone in my life because traditionally they have eggs and butter in them, and when I was little they didn't scream delicious to me. But now that I’m older, I think they’re adorable and dainty and especially sweet when shared with family and friends… Or a husband who loves when his wife gets random urges to bake!

Banana and Cranberry Scones

Slightly adapted from this beautiful scone recipe

2 ¼ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup oat flour (I grinded oats in the food processor until it resembled coarse flour)

¼ cup natural cane sugar

½ tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 ¼ tsp. baking powder

1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped (dry cranberries or cherries would work here too just reduce to ½ cup)

6 tbsp. cold coconut oil

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

½ cup full fat canned coconut milk + ¼ cup divided

1 tbsp. orange zest

Sugar, cinnamon and cardamom for garnish

Preheat your oven to 400 and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix flours, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking powder together. Mix in the cranberries. Work the solidified coconut oil into the flour and mix with your fingers until you get pea sized pebbles. Fold in the mashed banana, coconut milk and zest together until incorporated. Don’t over mix.  Pat dough together, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 20 minutes to chill.

On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough in two and make two disks that about 1.5” thick. Cut the disk in half, then in half the other way so that you get four triangles. Place them on parchment paper and brush with the extra coconut milk on top and sprinkle with the sugar, cinnamon and cardamom mixture on top. Bake on the middle rack for 16-18 minutes, rotating the baking tray half way through baking. Repeat with the second batch and serve just above room temperature. Yum!