Maple Cranberry Muffins

It’s Christmas time! Christmas is my second favorite Holiday. Halloween is definitely first. Although, the food is normally better on Thanksgiving because more effort is put into the Thanksgiving food; the feeling I get from Christmas time is better. Christmas just feels like family time and love. Christmas is cozy. And you know what’s cozy? These Maple Cranberry Muffins! 

I made these Maple Cranberry Muffins because I wanted to make something that works for breakfast on Christmas Day. I made a small batch to see if I liked this recipe, and I love it. On Christmas Day in my family, my mother normally does 100% of the cooking. She always starts cooking around 10 AM and we’re ready to eat around 1-3 PM. During this time, she never makes breakfast! This year I had to change that. And to change that, I decided the perfect breakfast would be these Maple Cranberry Muffins. Coming from a non-vegan/health food eating family, I wanted to contribute something that’s healthy to the festivities. These muffins are gluten free, dairy free, and granulated sugar free. Since my father has health issues, I’ve been trying to find cool ways for him to enjoy desserts.

Lastly, I want to mention that these muffins are based on my Sweet Potato Muffins recipe. If you haven’t tried them yet, I strongly recommend that you do. Another thing I want to let you know is that you can actually just add cranberries to that recipe! It’ll be just as delicious!

How to make Maple Cranberry Muffins:

First off, begin by choosing your flours. For these maple cranberry muffins, I used almond flour and tapioca flour. If you don’t buy alternative flours, you can use regular whole wheat flour and they’ll still be delicious. Making these muffins for your gluten free family members? Stick to the almond flour/tapioca flour blend.

Next, decide on if you want these muffins to be sweet or not. Due to the fact I used monk fruit sugar, I decided to drizzle a little bit of maple syrup on each muffin. The maple syrup helped give these muffins the brown color because they’re actually really pale. When I first made these muffins, I noticed that they didn’t change colors in the oven. So, I drizzled some maple syrup on them and boiled them for a few minutes to brown them.

After adding your maple syrup, add some nuts and the cranberries! I’m making a lot of recipes with the nuts in my pantry, so I decided to not use them for this recipe. Walnuts, pecans, pistachios, or even almonds would be delicious in this recipe. 

Lastly, if you want to add an extra boost of healthiness to these muffins, feel free to add some protein powders or make a cauliflower milk. To make cauliflower milk, blend some cauliflower and some milk and then use it in this recipe. Although, I’d suggest you to up the sugar if you do this. 

Tips for making muffins moist:

First, don’t over-mix your batter. The key to making the best muffins are to mix them lightly. Due to the fact you want them to be a little crumbly and soft at the same time, you’re going to want to lightly mix the batter. I like to fold the batter using a spatula! 

For some reason, a lot of people do not oil their pan when they make muffins! You must do this. For this recipe, I used some baker’s spray on my muffin pan; therefore the bottom of these muffins are perfect! Don’t have any baker’s spray on hand? Use a little bit of flour with some cooking spray and use a paper towel to wipe the excess. 

Also, it’s important to note that I do believe that eggs make muffins more soft. But, since I do not cook with eggs anymore, I’ve had to find alternatives to making them soft. Therefore, I always use my egg replacers or some apple cider vinegar. Another way to make muffins soft and fluffy is to use some  greek yogurt or mascarpone with some apple cider vinegar. This will result in some soft egg free muffins!

Can you use dried cranberries in place of fresh cranberries in muffins? 

Yes, you can use dried cranberries instead of using fresh cranberries. Although, I don’t think they will be as delicious as these maple cranberry muffins are with the fresh cranberries. I don’t bake with dried fruit often; so if you try this recipe with dried recipes, then go ahead and let me know!

Also, if you’re going to be using dried cranberries then I’d suggest you to slightly up the sugar a little bit. 

Can I use honey instead of using maple syrup? 

Yes, you can, but this recipe won’t be vegan anymore. I know a lot of people that are vegans that still use honey in their recipes. But, due to the fact a lot of the vegans I know tend to stay away from honey; I try and make my vegan recipes without honey. Some alternatives that you can use for the honey and maple syrup are ginger syrup, date syrup, and coconut nectar!

Want more recipes: 

• Brioche Monkey Bread Muffins
• Vanilla Hemp Banana Bread
• Easy Vegan Chocolate Babka
• White Chocolate Tahini Bars

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