Cranberry-Pecan Muffins (Whole Wheat) – Recipe

Cranberry-Pecan Muffins (recipe and instructions with video tutorial follow)- Every year at Thanksgiving I make a giant batch of cranberry sauce for the family dinner. This year, while shopping at my neighborhood wholesale store (where mayo comes by the gallon), I bought my cranberries. They had a five pound bag for the same price I usually get two pounds for and I am one of those people who doesn’t pass up a good deal or a sale. Lost in the excitement of getting more than twice as much for the same price, I didn’t consider that this bag would be occupying the better part of my fruit drawer in the fridge. When I got home, I realized that I would be making a double batch of my delicious spiced cranberry sauce that night or the rest of my fruit would suffer the consequences. I began going over in my head all the cranberry creations I could come up with and that’s when these wonderful whole wheat cranberry-pecan muffins were born. Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup flax meal
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 stick butter
1/2 cup Splenda
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 Tablespoon orange zest
2 eggs
1 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed if possible)
2 cups cranberries (chopped)
1 cup pecans (broken up)

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.
2. Prepare your muffin pan with cooking spray or butter and flour it.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, flax meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine.
4. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, splenda, brown sugar and orange zest.
5. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
6. Blend in the eggs and scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
7. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix them together.
8. Add 1/3 of the orange juice and mix to combine.
9. Continue alternating the dry ingredients with the orange juice 1/3 at a time beating each addition until it’s combined and scraping the bowl frequently.
10. Stir or beat in the cranberries and pecans.
11. Spoon the muffin batter into prepared muffin cups.
12. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

yield 12-15 muffins

Please enjoy this “how to” video!