Cranberry sauce orange muffins

Canned or homemade cranberry sauce a great baking ingredient!

These days, the first place I look when I’m thinking about baking is my pantry shelves. I bought quite a range of canned foods a couple of months ago and now it’s time to get busy using it all up. If you don’t have canned cranberry sauce on hand, homemade is great too. I just don’t recommend using chopped uncooked cranberries as they will be too tart in this recipe. These muffins freeze beautifully.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour *
• 1/2 cup (100 g) each white and brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon (14 g) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) salt
• 1 cup milk (250 mL), either dairy or non-dairy
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) melted butter, coconut oil or vegetable oil, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) vanilla extract
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup (205 g) cranberry sauce, any excess liquid drained off
• 3/4 cup (170 g) chopped orange segments (fresh or canned)
• 1 teaspoon (1.75 g) freshly grated ginger (or 2 teaspoons (10 g) powdered ginger)
• 1/2 cup (75 g) chopped pecans

* You can also use 1 1/2 cups (180 g) all-purpose and 1/2 cup (60 g) oat or whole wheat flour

Method

• Preheat oven to 400F. Line 16 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.
• In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder and salt.
• In another bowl (or glass measure), whisk together milk, cooled melted butter, vanilla and egg.
• Pour liquids into dry ingredients and stir just until no dry spots are evident. Fold in cranberry sauce, chopped orange segments and pecans.
• Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
• Bake about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Transfer to a wire rack and cool slightly before serving.

Makes 16 muffins