Yesterday was a day of change. It was the end of daylight savings here, which meant that we turned our clocks back an hour. This changed morning wake up time for my kids- they were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:30 in the morning. My Sunday morning routine also changed, as I needed to be at church much earlier than normal, and I decided that in honor of this day of change, I needed to make some muffins.
I spent a lot of time thinking about the perfect muffin. What I wanted was a crowd-pleaser, so right off the bat, I eliminated any option that included nuts. I don’t know why people seem to have such a love-hate relationship with nuts, but there it is. No nuts. Beyond that, though, I was stumped until I saw that my grocery store had started stocking seasonal fresh cranberries. At just $1.50 a bag, I threw one in my cart and thought that I would probably be making something with cranberries.
I searched through recipe after recipe, and the more I thought on it, the more I thought about how cranberries just go so well with nuts in quick breads. And more than that, they went well with oranges, which we didn’t have in the house yet. Ultimately, I could not find a muffin recipe that I liked, so I decided to go with one that was closest, and then tweak it to my taste.
I changed the recipe a lot, but the end result was more than spectacular. This really is the muffin that everyone will be talking about a few hours later. This is the muffin that keeps you going back for just one more, because it couldn’t have possibly been so delicious. It was that good, and even better, loaded with fresh cranberries and pumpkin, they’re actually quite good for you.
This recipe will make 24 standard sized muffins. I haven’t tried it yet making jumbo muffins, but they’re pretty moist, so I would worry that the jumbo muffins would not be cooked through on the inside while getting overdone on the outside. Still, I have a fondness for jumbo muffins, so I might just try that sometime.
Pumpkin Cranberry Chocolate Chip Muffins
To make chopping the cranberries easy, dump them into a food processor and pulse a few times until there are no whole berries left.
Muffins:
2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup milk 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup pumpkin puree 2 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 1/2 cups whole cranberries, coarsely chopped 1 cup chocolate chipsTopping:
4 tablespoons quick cooking oats 2 tablespoons flour 4 tablespoons packed brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into piecesDirections:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line your muffin tins with cupcake papers OR spray them well with cooking spray.
For the topping, combine the oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Quickly cut in the butter using a fork or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
To make the muffins, first combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl. Mix thoroughly so the baking powder is evenly distributed.
In a larger mixing bowl, combine the sugar, milk, oil, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla. Beat together until well-combined.
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, and fold in with a spatula or wooden spoon, until no floury bits remain. Add the cranberries and chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.
Divide the batter among 24 muffin cups. Top each one with a good tablespoon of the topping mixture.
Bake in a 350ºF oven for about 25 minutes, or until a tester inserted near the middle of one muffin comes out clean.
Remove muffins from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.