Hello friends! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, filled with joy and of course food! Now we may all be coming down from our turkey, ham, prime rib – whatever it is that you made for Christmas – but we all need a great breakfast for the days following the holiday! Enter here:
Cranberry Pistachio Muffins!
These cranberry pistachio muffins are a great way to use up some of those whole cranberries you still have in the fridge or freezer. They are also a great way to continue the season, but not get crazy complex. Muffins are easy a quick and you can basically substitute any fruit inside them depending on your taste.
This muffin recipe was inspired by Michelle from Hummingbirdhigh.com and her “weeknight Baking” Cookbook. Michelle has the muffin recipe down so it was an obvious base from which to start.
What you need:
For the perfect muffin here are some ingredients that you should have:
- Flour
- Pistachios
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Cranberries – cherries work great too!
- Butter
- Sugar
- Citrus zest
- Eggs
- Milk
Pretty straight forward. The real trick is in the method of combining these ingredients. I explain it in detail in my Banana Muffin Recipe but in short: The idea is to mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another. You then pour the wet over the try and combine, mixing as little as possible. Eggs and sugar are both considered wet. Use a spatula to combine the ingredients. The mixture does not have to be lump-free.
In the end, you will have a batter that has some dry spots in it, and that’s ok! You don’t want to over mix and have tough muffins.
Once you’ve combined your ingredients, it is important to prep your muffin pan so that they don’t stick. I use brown paper liners just to make clean up easier. You can either use liners or spray your muffin pan with nonstick spray. Just make sure you coat it really well. I often spray the top of my pan, just in case the muffins overflow the tops of the liners and sit on the pan.
This recipe makes 12 muffins, so you will want to fill each of your liners with about 6 tablespoons of batter (about ¾ full). This may seem like a lot, but it’s not – trust the process.
Once you have your liners filled, I like to place a sprinkle of pistachios and cranberries on top. I like to be able to see what’s in my muffins, but you can skip this step if you’d like.
It’s getting hot in here
Finally, you can have great ingredients, perform the muffin method perfectly and still come out with stodgy muffins. It all comes down to oven temperature.
If you don’t have an oven thermometer, I highly recommend getting one to make sure that your oven is actually the temperature that the read out says that it is. You can find one here, if you don’t know where to start.
These Cranberry Pistachio Muffins bake at 375 – which allows the chemical reactions of the baking powder to give the muffins lift.
So there you have it, a quick and easy muffin recipe that you can share, or not. 😊
Happy baking!
XO,
Danielle
Cranberry Pistachio Muffins
Tart and Sweet these Cranberry Pistachio Muffins will make any morning better!
Ingredients
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- ½ finely ground pistachios
- 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Kosher Salt
- 2 Cups Cranberries whole
- ½ Cup 1 Stick Unsalted Butter
- 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Orange zest
- 1 large eggs
- ½ Cup Milk
Instructions
- Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 deg F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners, if using
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, ground pistachios, baking powder, and salt together.
- Place the whole cranberries in a bowl, toss with 2 tablespoons of the dry mixture.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium high until light and fluffy. It should be a pale yellow. Add orange zest and vanilla extract. Combine.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl, as necessary, and add eggs one at a time. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients. Follow with the milk, streaming it down the side of the bowl. Mix until just combined.
- Fold the cranberries into the mixture with a spatula.
- Using a large cookie scoop (about 3 tablespoons) fill each liner with 6 tablespoons of batter, or two scoops. Top with extra cranberries and chopped pistachios as desired.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until the muffins are domed and golden brown in color. Cool muffins on a wire rack, in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely.
- Enjoy right away or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
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