Although I haven’t lived in New Jersey for decades, in my heart, I’ll always be a ‘Jersey Girl’ because that’s where I was born and raised.
Of course, everyone knows that New Jersey is the Garden State; it says to right on the license plates!
NJ has a rather lengthy list of produce grown in the state, but today’s focus is on cranberries because it’s that time of the year.
Primarily a source of carbohydrates and fiber, cranberries are also an excellent source of vitamin C. The thing about cranberries is this – you won’t want to eat them in their natural state unless you favor extremely tart flavors!
In order to make cranberries palatable, adding sweetener to any cranberry recipe is a must, so I’m offering my recipe for Cranberry-Orange-Pecan Muffins for the Holiday season. Hope you’ll enjoy them!
Cranberry-Orange-Pecan Muffins
Equipment
- 12-cup muffin tin
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup light – or – dark brown sugar (packed)
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- 2 large eggs (beaten)
- ⅔ cup orange juice
- 1 Tbsp. orange zest (optional)
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup fresh cranberries (rinsed, sorted, and coarsely chopped (Note: frozen, thawed cranberries may be used.))
- 1 cup chopped pecans (Walnuts may be substituted.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and baking powder.
- In a separate bowl add the beaten eggs, orange juice and oil; stir to combine.
- Blend the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing just until moistened (batter will be somewhat lumpy).
- Fold in cranberries, orange zest (if using) and nuts.
- Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin or place 12 paper cups in each section.
- Fill each section about ¾ full with the batter (cups will be almost full). Bake until golden brown, 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with dry crumbs.
- Remove muffins from pan to cool on a wire rack.
- Serve with cream cheese or luxurious mascarpone!
These muffins came out great! I shared them at work and everyone loved them. Thank you for posting such a lovely recipe!
Thank you, and I’m so happy to hear these muffins were a ‘hit’!