Cranberry-Orange Muffins w/ Orange Glaze

Yes, I do realize that my LAST post was about cranberries, but during the week of Thanksgiving, I managed to buy about 4 bags of fresh cranberries, and I think I only ended up using 1-2.  So I have fresh cranberries just sitting away in my fridge, and the guilt was getting to me.  When I came across this recipe for Cranberry-Orange Muffins, I knew those berries in my fridge had a destiny.

So, we were having Breakfast for Dinner tonight, and I thought that a delicious, tart muffin would be the perfect complement to our hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, and biscuits!  The kids and I whipped these up fairly quickly and without anyone getting hurt, and I thought they were delicious!  The orange glaze that you put on at the end brings these babies over the top.  Give them a try if you too happen to have some leftover cranberries, or if you just have a thing for deliciousness.

Cranberry-Orange Muffins w/ Orange Glaze
Adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride


Ingredients:
For the muffins
1 cup milk
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (mine was Simply Orange, not fresh-squeezed)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
2 sticks butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
zest of 1 orange  (didn't have this)
1/2-1 bag of whole fresh cranberries (I used about 3/4 of a bag)

For the glaze
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp orange zest  (Again, I didn't use this and the glaze was still yummy.  May have been even better with the zest, but I guess I'll never know, will I!?)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare two muffin tins with non-stick spray or muffin liners. Whisk together the milk, OJ, sour cream, eggs, and butter. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just until the flour is incorporated. Gently fold the orange zest and the fresh cranberries into the batter.
Spoon the batter into the muffin pans, filling each cup ~3/4 full. Bake ~20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool the muffins in the pans for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a cooling rack.
Combine the orange juice, powdered sugar, and zest in a medium bowl. Spread over each muffin.
 

 ***Casey's Notes:  As I mentioned before, I don't have a zester, so I didn't use any fresh orange zest, and my muffins were still great.
***Instead of spreading the muffins with the glaze, like the original recipe suggests, I dipped my muffins top first into the glaze to coat them.  I found it easier and less messy, but be sure your muffins are cool enough to handle before you do that or you might get burned or they may fall apart on you.
***The original recipe says this yields about 15 regular-sized muffins.  My kids like the mini-muffins size, so I made a dozen regular-sized muffins, and I also got 2 dozen (24) mini muffins.  All from this recipe!!!! WOW!  We had muffins everywhere, so I gave several to our neighbors, plus we have tons for breakfast and snacking.

***Want to make these even better, I think I may add some nuts next time: walnuts, pecans, almond slivers.  YUM.