Bakery-Style Cranberry Orange Muffins
These impressive Bakery-Style Cranberry Orange Muffins are filled with fresh orange juice and frozen cranberries. These moist and fluffy, almost cake-like orange muffins are so sweet, tart, and delicious. Perfect for the holidays and any day in between.
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Why This Recipe is So Good
There’s just something about bakery-style muffins. They are just so delicious, and soft, with beautiful domed tops and plenty of sparkling sugar. These homemade orange cranberry muffins taste like the ones I would get from the bakery section of Central Market (a store similar to Whole Foods), but they are super easy to make at home, and cheaper too!
Homemade cranberry orange muffins have all the flavor of your favorite bakery, but this recipe is simple enough for anyone to make in 40 minutes. Perfect if you are craving a sweet snack or want to serve something impressive and delicious for Thanksgiving.
Made with freshly squeezed orange juice and zest, and fresh or frozen cranberries. Orange juice and zest add a lot of bright citrusy flavors to the muffin, and the convenience of using fresh or frozen cranberries means you can make these muffins whenever your cravings strike.
Recipe Ingredients
Orange zest and juice: The fresh orange zest adds bright citrus flavor to the muffins. The orange juice adds even more flavor and keeps these muffins light, fluffy, and moist.
Fresh or frozen cranberries: The tart berries complement the sweet and citrusy flavor of the orange. Feel free to use either fresh or frozen cranberries. Whichever you have on hand will work great for this recipe.
Milk: Keeps these orange muffins extra moist.
Butter: Creamed with sugar to give these muffins a soft, tender texture similar to cake. Creaming the butter and sugar until the mixture is fluffy and lighter in color is so important to making the perfect muffin.
Demerara or turbinado sugar (raw sugar): The key to a nicely browned bakery-style muffin is to top them generously with either demerara or turbinado sugar before baking. These chunky sugar crystals help to brown the top of the muffins as they cook and make the perfect crispy crunchy sparkling top.
How to Make Bakery-Style Cranberry Orange Muffins
All ingredients, measurements, and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Make muffin batter
Step 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line the muffin pan with regular or tulip cupcake liners, then set aside.
Step 2. Mix together the dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
Step 3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, orange zest, and cane sugar until fluffy and lighter in color. Then whisk in the egg and vanilla extract until combined.
Step 4. Alternate folding in the flour mixture and the milk. Then mix in the orange juice, don’t over-mix.
Step 5. Fold in the cranberries.
Fill muffin liners and bake
Step 6. Fill the cupcake liners ¾ of the way with the batter, then top generously with demerara or turbinado sugar.
Step 7. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Step 8. Allow the muffins to cool on a wire rack, enjoy!
Looking For More Recipes?
- The Best Ever Blueberry Cranberry Muffins
- Cake-Like Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Moist Lemon Blueberry Poundcake Loaf with Lemon Glaze
- Raspberry Lemon Poundcake with Raspberry Glaze
- Naturally Sweetened Orange Cranberry Sauce
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Bakery-Style Cranberry Orange Muffins
Equipment
- 2 tablespoon cookie scoop for transferring batter to muffin pan
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature softened
- ¾ cup white granulated sugar or cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup orange juice freshly squeezed or store-bought
- 1 ½ cup fresh or frozen cranberries
- Demerara or turbinado sugar for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cupcake pan with regular or tulip cupcake liners. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and orange zest until it is light and fluffy, 2 -3 minutes. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract, whisk until smooth.1/2 cup unsalted butter, ¾ cup white granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon orange zest, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Add in ⅓ cup of the flour mixture, then ¼ cup of milk, alternating. Then mix in the orange juice. Now gently fold in the cranberries.¾ cup whole milk, ¼ cup orange juice, 1 ½ cup fresh or frozen cranberries
- Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way up, and top each muffin with a generous amount of demerara or turbinado sugar.Demerara or turbinado sugar for topping
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until the muffins are lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is a rough estimate. Recipe card may include affiliate links.
