Whole Wheat Cranberry-Orange Muffins

My mother in law, Her Ladyship, likes to eat one of these Whole Wheat Cranberry-Orange Muffins for breakfast every morning. I have been baking a batch of these muffins for her once a week since 2008. Before that, I used to bake her a weekly batch of chocolate chip breakfast muffins, but ever since Her Ladyship's little pup came into her life she switched to cranberries in case puppy wants to steal a bite. Lord Pookie McCuteFace is always stealing bites of things. Mostly food, sometimes socks.



These were initially a hybrid of the Cranberry Orange Nut Muffins from Vegan Brunch and the Zesty Cranberry Crumb Muffins from My Sweet Vegan. They have gone through many changes since I first started to bake these for Her Ladyship. They have been tailored to her personal taste and nutritional wants, so you may need to make some changes to keep your taste buds happy. These have a truckload of cranberries! A double semi-trailer truck full of cranberries! They don't have a whole lot of sugar because the cranberries are already sweetened, and they are made with mostly whole wheat flour, but you can go with half whole wheat and half white if you want. These are no fluffy things. These muffins mean bidness.

Personally, I don't care for cranberries. Or raisins. I don't understand them. "Oh hey, here's a tasty little fruit! Let's dry it up and turn it into a shriveled up bit of blergh!"

No, thanks! Give me chocolate chips. Chocolate chips I understand.

Her Ladyship's Whole Wheat Cranberry-Orange Muffins Recipe Type: Muffins Cuisine: Vegan Author: Wing It Vegan Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 35 mins Serves: 12 muffins Ingredients: 1 1/4 to 1 1/3 cup orange juice 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup applesauce 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract 1 tsp orange extract 1 to 1 1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1/2 tbsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 2 tsp sugar for sprinkling What To Do: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and prepare a muffin tin with muffin liners. Spray a little bit of cooking spray inside each liner. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the orange juice, sugar, oil, applesauce, vanilla extract, and orange extract. Whisk thoroughly for at least 30 seconds. Stir in the cranberries. In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flours and baking powder. Add salt whisk or stir well. Pour the liquids on top of the dry ingredients and fold everything together until just combined. We don't want to overmix this one or it will be tough and chewy. Your batter should be fairly thin. It shouldn't be so thick that you could scoop it out neatly. Fill each muffin well with the muffin batter and sprinkle the extra two teaspoons of sugar evenly over the tops. Lower the oven temperature to 350 F (175 C) and bake for 20-22 minutes. Turn the oven to broil at 375 and broil for two or three minutes or until the sugar on top is nice and browned. Keep an eye on it because they will go from lovely to burnt in seconds! Notes: These are made with store-bought orange juice. If you're using fresh OJ and your oranges aren't very sweet, you may want to increase the sugar. Her Ladyship likes a lot of cranberry with a little bit of muffin, which is a cup and a half of cranberries. Go with one cup if you want a lot of muffin with a little bit of cranberry. The whole wheat that I use for these is super fine. It's King Arthur brand, but any super finely ground whole wheat flour will do. You can also use whole wheat pastry flour.

I don't think you understand the obscene amount of cranberries that go into these. Let me find another shot...

You  may be thinking that it's very kind of me to bake a weekly batch of muffins for my mother in law. Not really. I collect payment each time. The only acceptable methods of payment are puppy cuddles or crazy run-around-the-couch-like-maniacs puppy time. That's a steal! Look at this face!

Lord Pookie McCuteFace wants to steal your socks.