Orange Cranberry Muffins

This is a lovely recipe for cranberry muffins, with a touch of orange for even more flavor and nutrition.

Cranberries add that nice tart taste to a sweet muffin. It's a great mix.

And cranberries are so easy to use. You can buy them any time of the year, freeze them and pop them into fabulous recipes any time, like this muffin recipe.

There is something about the combination of orange and cranberry that works really well together.

This recipe uses both the zest and juice of the orange, so the muffins have a beautiful orange flavor.

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup corn or canola oil
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans(optional)

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray or grease it lightly. Set it aside.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together the eggs, corn syrup, orange juice, oil and orange rind in a large bowl. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined. Stir in the cranberries and nuts.

Note: Really do only mix the muffin batter until everything is just combined. Do not beat the batter or overmix or the muffins will not be as tender and they could.

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until lightly browned and firm to the touch.

Makes 12 muffins.

• Change the orange flavor to lemon by substituting lemon zest for the orange zest. If you want to use lemon juice as well, instead of orange juice, do as stated above and reduct it by at least half and top it up with water. It will be too tart otherwise.

• Sprinkle the top of the muffins with a bit of sugar before baking if you want an extra bit of sweetness and crunch to the finished product.