Cranberry Sauce Muffins are an easy healthy breakfast or snack solution for your leftover cranberry sauce. Super moist, dairy free and sweetened with date paste. These easy muffins have the spice of the holidays, orange zest and jeweled with delicious slightly sweet and tart cranberries.
Jump to:
- What's to Love
- What to Do with Leftover Cranberry Sauce?
- Homemade Low Sugar Cranberry Sauce
- Low Sugar Honey Sweetened Cranberry Sauce Ingredients
- Date Paste Compared to Regular Granulated Sugar
- How to Make Date Paste from Scratch?
- Ingredients and Substitution Options
- How to Make Holiday Muffins?
- Baking Tips
- Cranberries are the Year Around Super Food
- Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
- More delicious Bread and Muffin Recipes
- Cranberry Sauce Muffins
What's to Love
Are ready to start the holiday baking? If you are a slow starter like us, then these muffins are super easy way to start the transition and you can use up the leftover cranberry sauce. Win- Win!
Every bite of these easy date sweetened muffins is like taking a bite of the holidays. With the ginger, cinnamon, cranberries and dates, it tastes like our Gingerbread Boys and Girls Cookies, but a bit healthier. We are not quite ready to indulge in everything sweet. Instead we enjoy making things a little more nutritious using date paste instead of refined sugar like in our apple oatmeal date cookies.
What to Do with Leftover Cranberry Sauce?
Cranberry sauce has been a part of our Thanksgiving and holidays as long as we can remember. Some of our favorite recipes using cranberry sauce are…
- Drizzle sauce over cream cheese and goat cheese ball and serve with crackers for a fun appetizer.
- Delicious on toast, scones or as a topping for ice cream or our Easy Microwave Chocolate Pudding.
- Rocks over our Spiced Cranberry Glazed Ham.
- Slather cranberry sauce over their turkey sandwiches the next day for lunches.
- However, our favorite way to use up that extra cranberry sauce is to make Cranberry Sauce Muffins!
Homemade Low Sugar Cranberry Sauce
Please skip the stuff in the can! There is nothing odder than having a gelatin based wiggly food on the dinner table that still has the ridges in the can showing. (smiling). If you made these muffins with the stuff in the can, you could call it Jellied Cranberry Muffins.
Did you know it takes less than 10 minutes to whip up your own cranberry sauce? Really! The canned stuff is just a can of sugar, preservatives, cranberries and some other items we cannot pronounce.
Our homemade lower sugar honey sweetened cranberry sauce has a delightful blend of sweet and sour cranberries that makes it addictive. Making your own sauce is as simple as putting everything into a saucepan and letting it come up to boil and once the cranberries start to pop and let out their juices, it is ready. Just as simple as that!
Low Sugar Honey Sweetened Cranberry Sauce Ingredients
- Fresh Cranberries – 12 oz
- Juice of 1 fresh orange
- Orange zest - 1 tablespoon
- Cinnamon – 1 teaspoon
- Honey ⅓ cup +2 tablespoons
- Salt – ¼ teaspoon
Date Paste Compared to Regular Granulated Sugar
Did you know that dates have a lower glycemic spike compared to granulated sugar? According to a study by NIH, dates caused less of a postprandial elevation in sugar levels compared to regular granulated sugar consumption. In other words, the glucose level raises more slowly and does not spike as abruptly regular granulated sugar.
However, at the end of the day, sugar is sugar. Whether it is a natural and unrefined or refined. That is exactly why we used lower amount of date paste and just ⅓ cup chopped dates in our eggless marbled banana bread. It gives this healthy muffin recipe a lovely delicately sweet and slightly sour cranberries for one addictive bite.
How to Make Date Paste from Scratch?
You are going to want to make a batch of date paste as soon as possible because it is absolutely delicious in our Healthy Pumpkin Muffins, Easy Pumpkin Empanadas, Homemade Cream Earl Bubble Tea and of course in our cranberry holiday muffins.
In order to make homemade date paste, you will need 2 cups of pitted dates (medjool dates are our favorite), and about ½ cup of warm water and blitz it in a food processor until smooth. Make a batch today so you have it for all of your holiday baking.
Ingredients and Substitution Options
- All Purpose Flour - (we have not tested this recipe with a gluten free flour mix or blend)
- Date paste – To sweeten the muffins, you can exchange 1:1 with regular granulated sugar or brown sugar. If you want to use another sweetener alternative, you will have to determine the ratio exchange for ¾ cup of sugar. Each sugar alternative works a little differently.
- Almond milk – We wanted dairy free muffins as dairy is not our friend. However, you can use regular milk or other non-dairy milk brands of choice.
- Cranberry Sauce – Our Honey Sweetened cranberry sauce is a less sweet compared to the regular recipes or use up the leftover cranberry sauce on hand.
- Orange juice – We used fresh, but you can also use orange juice in a can.
- Orange Zest – Fresh citrus zest in the muffin batter and as a garnish is really nice. You can use mandarin oranges or even lemon zest if you do not have fresh oranges on hand.
- Mix Ins – Have fun with this! Add chocolate chips, nuts or raisins as desired. We garnished our muffins with a little bit of dried old fashion oatmeal for a fun topping. However, it is completely optional.
How to Make Holiday Muffins?
- In a large bowl combine your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon) and set aside.
- Then, in your mixing bowl add your wet ingredients (date paste, eggs, almond milk, vanilla and coconut oil) and mix until well incorporated.
- Now, slowly add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients with a mixer.
- Last not but least, add your delicious holiday cranberry sauce and orange zest.
- Place in muffin cup and bake at 400 degrees F (204 degrees C) for about 14- 16 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean and slightly golden on the top.
- Remove from the oven and dust with a little orange zest if desired. Let rest in your tins for 5 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool.
Baking Tips
- Use cupcake liners or grease pan with oil spray to prevent sticking.
- When, date paste is refrigerated it is very firm. You will need to scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl a few times to get the date paste off the bottom.
- If you have made homemade date paste from scratch and your paste is still a little chunky, that makes for one extra delicious muffin bite. Don’t sweat it.
- You can exchange date paste with granulated or brown sugar in a 1:1 ratio. We used ¾ date paste so exchange with ¾ cup brown or granulated sugar.
- Fill your cupcake tins up to the top. They will rise and make 12 large gorgeous muffins. No one like those little skimpy muffins with a flat top because you filled it only ¾ of the way full.
- Add ins are fun! Try mini chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, etc. We love the little extra nutty flavor of plain dried oats as a topping for ours. Totally optional, but delicious.
- Cranberry sauce muffins can be refrigerated for up to a week in a sealed container or can be stored frozen for up to 2 months.
- These little holiday muffins are fantastic for breakfasts on the go, car trips, school and work lunches or as a snack. You might also like our Cranberry Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies or sheet pan peanut butter and jelly pancakes for a quick breakfast idea.
Cranberries are the Year Around Super Food
Muffins made with cranberry sauce are chock full of full of delicious whole bursted cranberries. Cranberries are filled with antioxidants, vitamin C and have been proven positive for antimicrobial effects and gut health, according to a study by NIH. This time of the year we need to be extra kind to our bodies and nourish them from the inside, as the outside stressors can really take a toll on our bodies.
Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
Make sure your ingredients such as eggs, date paste and coconut oil (melted) are at room temperature first. This ensures that the ingredients combine well, and this makes for a lighter and fluffy muffin. Most importantly DO NOT OVERMIX your muffin batter! Small little lumps are okay. If you overmix your muffin batter, it will activate the glutens and make your muffins tough.
Muffins will be done when they have a lightly golden top and a toothpick comes out clean without any batter on it. As every oven heats a little differently, we always set our timer for about 3 minutes less than the instructions. Then, start to check the muffins and add more time as needed. You can always bake a little longer, but you can’t fix over baked muffins. If you touch the top of the muffins, they should spring back.
The muffin tops are the best. We could not agree more. In order to get a large muffin with a big muffin top, fill your muffin tins almost to the top with your muffin batter. Muffins will rise high in the oven for a big muffin top.
More delicious Bread and Muffin Recipes
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins (Dairy-free and Sugar Free)
Hong Zao Bread (Chinese Date Bread)
Grab n Go Chai Breakfast Biscuit
Baked Matcha Lemon Glazed Donuts
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Cranberry Sauce Muffins
Equipment
- muffin or cupcake tin
- mixer
- cupcake liners
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour all-purpose
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ginger dried ground
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon dried ground
- ¾ cup date paste instructions below
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup almond milk or dairy alternative of choice
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted or oil of choice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup cranberry sauce leftover cranberry sauce (We used a honey sweetened cranberry sauce - see notes below)
- 1 tablespoon orange zest and extra for garnish
- ¼ cup old fashion oats dried (optional for garlish)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 204 Celsius (400 degrees F)
- Place cupcake/muffin liners in the cupcake tin or spray cupcake tin with oil to prevent sticking. (We always have better luck with the cupcake liners)
- In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and mix together. Set aside.
- In another bowl combine date paste and eggs and mix with blender. Add almond milk or dairy of choice, coconut oil and vanilla and mix well.
- Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Do not over mix! It's okay if the batter is slightly lumpy.
- Fold in cranberry sauce and orange zest. If you would like to add fun add ins like mini chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, etc., go ahead and do this now.
- Scoop muffin mixture into lined muffin tins. We use an ice cream scooper. Fill almost to the top. This recipe will make 12 large muffins with big muffin tops.
- Garnish with a dried oatmeal flakes as desired
- Bake for 14-16 minutes. Muffins will be done when they are slightly golden on top and a toothpick comes out clean. (As everyone’s oven is always just a little different, we suggest you set your timer for about 12minutes and then check on them. Add more time as needed.) Allow to rest for 5minutes in the muffin tin. Remove the muffins from the muffin tin and rest on a wire rack.
- Grate a little orange zest on top for garnish, if desired and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Fresh Cranberries – 12 oz
- Juice of 1 fresh orange
- Orange zest - 1 tablespoon
- Cinnamon – 1 teaspoon
- Honey ⅓ cup +2 tablespoons
- Salt – ¼ teaspoon
Hannah (BitterSweet) says
Yes! Cranberries are seriously powerful little berries, and they get so little credit for their healthfulness. I always struggle to find ways to incorporate them into my diet, so I'm thrilled to have your muffins as inspiration now. It does help to sweeten them up a bit. 😉
Healthy World Cuisine says
Cranberries are great for your health but they do have the pucker power so it is good to find alternatives to sweeten them naturally. With all the new super foods around the poor little cranberry gets forgotten but she has been around a long time. Take care, BAM
sufey (@SufeySuryananadi) says
Bobbi, you are brilliant!!! These muffins look delicious and I'll definitely be trying them out once I get home! Thanks for your creativity and inspiration, superchef! 😀
Healthy World Cuisine says
You were the inspiration for my muffins so it is you that I am very thankful for. Looking forward to reading more of your delicious posts. Take care, BAM
sufey (@SufeySuryananadi) says
So much love for you! <3
Charlotte says
Mmmh..these muffins seems extra nice! and if they are nice to my body too..it's a win, win!
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you Charlotte. Be good to yourself this holiday season. Take care, BAM
Dawn says
These look delicious, and I love how you substituted granulated sugar. I will definitely have to try these!! You have been writing a lot about healthy foods lately...
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thanks Dawn, I had to do a little experimenting with several batches of muffins and alternative sweetener options until I got it right. I think as well that the idea of sweet is really subjective as each person has their own perception on this. So please adjust up or down on the sugar alternatives as you family likes. Take care, BAM
Choc Chip Uru says
These are overflowing with those delicious juicy berries my friend, yum 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you CCU! How are those exams going? Wishing you the best of luck. BAM
Rachel @ The Pescetarian and the Pig says
I saw these first thing this morning and they got my mouth watering! What a lovely flavor combination, I loooooooooove these types of muffins!
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you Rachel. We are surrounded by so many goodies this time of the year so I wanted to have some of those goodies be a little healthier for my teenagers. Take care, BAM
dianeskitchentable says
You sure got the 'money shot' with the photo of the split muffin - the texture & color is beautiful. But, I have to admire that 2nd photo of the cranberries in the spoon, lovely. Looks like a great recipe.
I'd delegate my Christmas cards if I had someone w/penmanship that could be read so that's for the next chilly, cloudy day. But, I am actually making progress on my shopping! Not done, but progress is good right? You must be able to get some really unique gifts there for people back in the States, but if you have any local gifts to give, anything from your kitchen would be treasured I'm sure.
Healthy World Cuisine says
Dear Diane, thanks so much for your kind comment. These muffins are perfect with a cup of homemade lemon ginger tea. I see that you are trying to get me motivated to shop... I think I need a shopping buddy as it is not my favorite thing to do. So what are you doing next weekend? Want to come and visit HK? Have a super week. Take Care, BAM
dianeskitchentable says
Oh you have no idea how exciting that would be for me & I could get everything all wrapped up for you in a jiffy...you'll cook for me though right?
I used to be a retail buyer & you couldn't drag me into a store - but that was so long ago that now I'll actually do it & enjoy it but there are days that on-line surely does come in handy.
Healthy World Cuisine says
Certainly Healthy World Cuisine is open! We could knock out both of our shopping in one fun weekend. If you decide, let me know... BAM
john@kitchenriffs says
Love the cranberry surprise in these! Great way to use cranberries. I so rarely use them in baked goods, and they have such wonderful flavor that I'm a fool not to. Really nice recipe - thanks so much.
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thanks John. Cranberries are in season now and a great time to get your hands on the fresh variety. I really prefer the fresh cranberries in the muffins as it gives them a nice chewy texture and makes them extra moist instead of the pre-sweetened dry variety. Take care, BAM
theglobalgarnishgeek says
What a good use for leftover cranberry sauce. I've been pouring mine over vanilla ice cream, but you can only eat so much ice cream. I think I'll give these yummy looking muffins a try.....
Healthy World Cuisine says
I have viewed your recipe and I don't think I would ever get bored. Here is another idea I seen for using up your cranberry sauce and icecream. 1) Make a chocolate crust with cookie biscuits and butter and bake and let cool 2) Add orange zest to vanilla icecream and put into the chocolate crust. 3) Add your left over cranberry sauce on the top and let it drizzle over the edges. How does that sound?
theglobalgarnishgeek says
Yumm I love the contrast between the sharpness of the cranberry and the sweet flavors....
ChgoJohn says
Buongiorno, BAM! These sound delicious and love the idea of opening one to find "rubies". I liked Sufey's recipe when I read it and this is a perfect use for it. I especially like the idea of freezing them. That's one sure way of keeping me from eating them all in one sitting. 🙂
Thanks for sharing a great recipe.
Healthy World Cuisine says
Grazie John! Although freezing them is a great idea for the normal household, I have found that my hungry teenagers are still able to find the snacks even when hidden in sublevel 4 of the freezer.... Take care, BAM
petit4chocolatier says
Bam, clicking my heels 3 times for the ruby red gems! I love cranberries so much. This is a perfect recipe for the holidays and other times too. I enjoyed Sufey's recipes too. I just purchased a couple of items yesterday for gifts for an adopted family. I need to get going on the rest too 🙂
I hope you don't mind if I reblog your link on my reblog page?
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you very much. Sufey's recipes are very unique and I really enjoy them. I am so happy to hear that you have started a basket for an adopted family. I am certain they must have a program like that here in HK but maybe it is all in Cantonese. I will have to look into that.
I would be very honored that you placed my little ruby red muffins for a repost.
Take Care, BAM
sweetsimplestuff says
I have some cranberry sauce in the fridge ... guess what I'm baking today 🙂
Healthy World Cuisine says
Great minds think alike! Have a super day! BAM
Kristy says
I love cranberries and so do the kids. We whipped up a batch of cranberry muffins at the holidays last year and the kids really loved it. Maybe I'll make this recipe this year! And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who hasn't started Christmas shopping yet!
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you Kristy. I guess one could say I am procrastinating a bit on shopping as I really don't like shopping at all. I know I am girl and this is supposed to be a favorite past time but for me I would much rather be outside enjoying nature or cooking. So ... shopping might happen on the day before.. if then...
thecompletecookbook says
Ooh, fabulous looking muffins. I would thoroughly enjoy one of those right now with a nice cup of tea. I am heading into town on Tuesday for the last of the Christmas grocery shop before the family arrive - the list is ever growing! Thankfully only buy pressies for the little ones in the family and that is all sorted - yippee!
Have a happy week ahead Bam.
🙂 Mandy xo
Arthy Suman says
OMG....I was stunned looking at this muffins...Looking so gorgeous...
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you for your kind comment. These muffins go great with a cup of ginger lemon tea.