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Tender, citrusy Orange Cranberry Muffins are buttery soft and topped with a tangy and vibrant orange glaze. With pops of cranberries throughout, these muffins will be a huge hit for your holiday season gatherings!

Zesty Buttery Orange Cranberry Muffins
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Don’t fancy yourself a muffin person? Me either. But I am convinced these orange cranberry muffins (sort of like my Pistachio Muffins) can turn everyone into muffin lovers!!

I associate the name muffin with an often dry pastry that requires coffee in order to make it enjoyable. But these are way better than even eating a cupcake! Something about that ultra-velvety soft, buttery and moist crumb that literally disappears in your mouth, or the tart cranberries that add wonderful texture and tang, and orange zest that will fill your home with love and all the happy homemaker vibes!

Zesty Buttery Orange Cranberry Muffins

What Makes These Orange Cranberry Muffins So Moist?

Think cupcake meets pound cake – that’s the texture of these zesty buttery orange cranberry muffins. The secret to these muffins having the perfect buttery crumb and extremely moist texture is of course, butter and sour cream!

Sour Cream:

Not only does the sour cream add a little tang to the flavor (which pairs perfectly with the zippy zest of orange!) but the acidity also reduces some of the sweetness and really balances the flavor. But most importantly, that moisture in the sour cream just locks right into the muffin and yield the most tender, moist texture.

Irish Butter:

Butter is important in most all baked goods. Although oil is used in some recipes, butter adds a richness that can never be duplicated by oil. For this recipe I use Irish butter which takes a step further to capture the ultimate richness. Irish butter (Kerrygold, Presidente, etc.) is creamier and a little saltier than traditional butter. The taste difference is incredible and I highly recommend it, although regular butter can easily be substituted.

Zesty Buttery Orange Cranberry Muffins

Key Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to throw together these tender and buttery cranberry orange muffins for the holiday season:

Cranberries – dried tart cranberries are used but you can also use fresh cranberries.

Oranges – fresh orange is used both for the zest and for the juice.

Dry Ingredients – all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt.

Wet Ingredients – melted butter, sour cream, eggs, vanilla extract

Powdered Sugar – for the orange glaze on top!

Zesty Buttery Orange Cranberry Muffins

No Mixer Needed & 3 Easy Steps!

This zesty buttery orange cranberry muffins recipe can be whipped up in just a few minutes without any mixer or hand mixer. I think it took me not even ten minutes to prepare these last time I made them and I only dirtied two bowls.

  1. The bowl you start with that has all the dry ingredients will be your main bowl. To that, you will add the wet ingredients. You can use a big glass measuring cup or even a gallon ziplock bag for the wet ingredients to save on dishes. Give them a good whisking and then add wet to dry.
  2. Add the cranberries and just barely mix the batter with a rubber spatula until it’s just combined, maybe a dozen or less stirs.
  3. Into the muffin tins they go for a quick bake in the oven at 400 degrees (enough heat to give it a good rise!). Then, we frost the muffins with a few ingredients you can whip up while the muffins are baking. Dunk the muffins into the glaze once they cool a bit, or you can just spoon drizzle the glaze all over the muffins.
a table full of orange cranberry muffins next to orange slices

Tips, Tricks, & Equipment

My go-to equipment

  1. I tested multiple types of muffin liners and these parchment tulip liners are my favorite and also the lotus liners. You can also find the lotus liners at the grocery stores but they a bit more wide and short than these ones. These stand tall and pretty!
  2. The classic Pyrex mixing bowls are all you need for this simple recipe!
  3. There are many types of microplanes and graters out there. Make sure you pick the right one for zesting orange peel. This is the one I have owned for ~8 years now.
  4. I love this muffin pan because it’s cheap on the wallet but awesome quality for the price!
  5. Ice cream scoops are incredible for muffin batter measuring (and for bakery-sized cookie dough balls).

A few tips and tricks worth noting…

  • You can forego the bakery-sized parchment liners and do standard cupcake sizes instead. Just be sure to note the baking time difference in the “Notes” section of the recipe.
  • I wouldn’t recommend dunking the muffins head first into the glaze unless you are using standard sized liners. It would be a bit cumbersome and messy with parchment liners. In this instance, I just spooned the glaze over the tops!
  • These muffins are best served immediately, but if they don’t get all gobbled up, be sure to store them in either a domed cake stand or another air tight container. I don’t like my baked goods to sit out very long but these are good for a few days.
  • For freezing – be sure to let the muffins cool completely. Avoid any glaze/topping and just freeze them plain. I’d recommend wrapping each muffins tightly in cling wrap, then in a freezer bag or airtight container.
Zesty Buttery Orange Cranberry Muffins

More of my favorite baked goods!

Easy Bakery-Style Pistachio Muffins

Triple Oreo Chocolate Cupcakes

Entenmann’s Devil’s Food Cake Donuts Copycat Recipe

Brownie Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Best Hostess Cupcake Copycat Recipe

Four Layer Peanut Butter Brownie Bars

Soft-Batch Triple Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

I look forward to your questions and feedback below. Please be sure to tag me @BadBatchBaking using hashtag #badbatchbaking if you made this recipe and I will feature you on my story! Plus, I LOVE to see your baking accomplishments.

Zesty, Buttery Orange Cranberry Muffins

5 from 1 vote
Prep: 25 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Total: 40 minutes
No-mixer needed muffins! These muffins have an incredible citrus tang that gives you a kick in the cheeks and the smell of warm orangey-muffins will fill your home. These are perfect for summertime, or the holiday season! Use real cranberries when they are in season, or you can use tart dried cherries!
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Ingredients 

Orange Cranberry Muffins

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick salted butter, melted and cooled a bit I use Kerrygold for a strong butter flavor
  • 1 cup sour cream room temp
  • 2 large egg room temp
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
  • Zest of 2 oranges be sure to clean before zesting
  • 1 cup dried cranberries dried cherries can also be used or 1.5 cups of fresh/frozen cranberries

Tangy Orange Glaze

  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice from the oranges you zested
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions 

Make the Muffins

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with bakery-style parchment paper muffin liners
  • In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
  • In another bowl, whisk together melted butter, sour cream, eggs, vanilla extract, orange juice and orange zest. Whisk to combine until eggs are incorporated. Pour the wet ingredients into the center of the dry ingredients. Add dried cranberries and carefully stir with a spatula until just combined.
  • Using an ice cream scoop or 1/3 cup, scoop the batter evenly into the muffin liners, filling 3/4 of the full. Place into the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Tangy Citrus Glaze

  • To make the tangy citrus glaze, combine the sifted powdered sugar, orange juice, vanilla extract and orange zest. Whisk until smooth. If the glaze is too thin, add a little more sifted powdered sugar as needed.
  • Allow the muffins to cool on a cooling rack before frosting otherwise it will melt off. You can spoon it over the muffins or dip them upside down into the glaze. Glaze should set up hard once it dries.

Notes

**For standard sized muffins: use cupcake liners instead and fill muffins batter to the top of the liners. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The oven temp will remain the same.
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5 from 1 vote

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3 Comments

  1. Julia says:

    Hi Mallory

    Quick question on the quantity of butter. Is it 1 cup plus 1 stick of butter or 1 cup or 1 stick of butter? Thank you

     
    1. Mallory Austin says:

      Hi Julia – I appreciate this catch. This was an older recipe from 2020 and when my new website converted my older recipes, there were a few squiurrely glitches. I corrected this, it should be one stick (8 tablespoons) of butter.

       
  2. Hasan says:

    5 stars
    Looking yummy