My Cranberry Sauce Muffins are a perfect blend of sweet and tart, creating a mouthwatering muffin that everyone will love. These light, fluffy muffins are the perfect way to use up leftover cranberry sauce and transform it into a delicious snack.
These muffins bake beautifully with a soft crumb and bursts of cranberry flavor, making them an easy way to turn leftovers into something brand new. I’ll admit, I often make a batch of my Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce just so I have an excuse to bake these muffins.
Muffins make the best grab-and-go snack or cozy breakfast treat. Around here, our Lemon Cranberry Muffins and Double Chocolate Muffins never last long.
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Quick and Easy: In only 25 minutes you'll have them cooling on your countertop, ready to enjoy.
- Leftovers: Use up any leftover holiday cranberry sauce. Truthfully, I make my homemade cranberry sauce just to use for these muffins.
- Flavorful: Typically cranberry sauce is a balance of sweet and tart flavors with a slight emphasis on the tartness. These flavors, blended together with a fluffy muffin base, provide surprising punch in every bite.
Ingredients
Mainly pantry staples are needed to be one step closer to a soft, sweet and tart muffin.
See the recipe card below for the exact quantities of each ingredient.
- Buttermilk: A secret way to make your muffins extra soft and fluffy.
- Granulated Sugar: Sweetens the dish to contrast the tartness.
- Egg: Binds the batter to give your muffin structure and texture.
- Lemon Zest: Concentrated lemon flavor without the acidity adds brightness to the recipes profile. Optional, but highly recommended.
- Leftover Cranberry Sauce: The surprising bursts of flavor throughout the muffin.
For this simple muffin recipe, you'll want to have on hand some measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, spatula, muffin tray with liners and a cooling rack.
Variations
- Gluten Free: We love doing a direct substitution using Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour.
- Dairy Free: You can make your own version of buttermilk with your preferred dairy free milk and lemon juice; or try using vegan sour cream
- Orange Zest: If you have oranges laying around from making your homemade cranberry sauce, use the orange zest instead of lemon.
How to Make Cranberry Sauce Muffins
See how simple it is to make this quick snack.
Preheat your oven to 400F and line a 12-tin muffins tray with liners and spray with non-stick spray and set aside.
In a medium bowl whisk all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.
Whisk buttermilk, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, egg, lemon zest and pure vanilla extra in a large bowl. Add in dry ingredients and mix until combined, it can be a little thick.
Mix in the cranberry sauce and divide batter into prepared muffin tray.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with lightly moist crumbs from the center.
Cool in the tray for 5-10 minutes, then on a cooling rack until cool enough to eat or for store.
Hint: Be sure not to overwork your batter. Mix your wet ingredients just until combined. Then when you add the dry ingredients in, fold until you do not see any dry streaks.
Recipe Tips
- Substitute for Buttermilk: Add 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar and allow it to sit for 10-15 minutes, you should see some small thick particles forming when stirring. Then add as needed.
- Use Room Temperature Ingredients: This helps the batter mix evenly and gives you light, fluffy muffins.
- Toss Add-Ins in Flour: If you’re adding extra cranberries or nuts, coat them lightly in flour to prevent them from sinking.
- Check Doneness Early: Every oven runs a bit different, start looking a few minutes before the timer goes off for the tops to start browning.
- Let them Cool: Allow muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. This helps set the crumb and prevents soggy bottoms.
Got extra cranberry sauce? Try our Cranberry Sauce Bread for another delicious way to use it up.
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Storage Instructions
- Refrigerator: Once cooled, store muffins in a single layer in an airtight container lined with paper towel for 3-4 days. The paper towel helps keep them soft and moist.
- Freezer: Let muffins cool completely, then place in a freezer-safe bag inside a shallow container to prevent squishing. You can also flash-freeze them on a baking sheet for 30 minutes before transferring to freezer bags. Store them either way for up to 3 months.
- Reheating: Bring to room temperature or warm in the microwave on low. Add a small dab of butter on top before heating for extra moisture.
Serving Suggestions
Leftover Cranberry Sauce Muffins Recipe FAQs
While most pans are non-stick, we suggest using liners and non-stick spray. Otherwise, most silicone trays will work well in releasing your muffins straight from the pan.
We often do a direct 1:1 sub of all-purpose flour for Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour and have had great luck.
Absolutely. Using your homemade is always great because you can adjust the flavors to your liking.
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Cranberry Sauce Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin Trays with Liners
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Mixing Bowls
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- 250 grams all-purpose flour about 2 cups
- ½ tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup buttermilk see notes for substitution
- 100 grams granulated sugar about ½ cup
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- ½ - 1 tablespoon lemon zest optional
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup leftover cranberry sauce
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400F and line a 12-tin muffins tray with liners and spray with non-stick spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.
- Whisk buttermilk, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, egg, lemon zest and pure vanilla extra in a large bowl. Add in dry ingredients and mix until combined, it will a bit thick.
- Mix in the cranberry sauce and divide batter into prepared muffin tray.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with lightly moist crumbs from the center.
- Cool in the tray for 5-10 minutes, then on a cooling rack.
Notes
- Substitute for Buttermilk: Add 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar and allow it to sit for 10-15 minutes, you should see some small thick particles forming when stirring. Then add as needed.
- Use Room Temperature Ingredients: This helps the batter mix evenly and gives you light, fluffy muffins.
- Toss Add-Ins in Flour: If you’re adding extra cranberries or nuts, coat them lightly in flour to prevent them from sinking.
- Check Doneness Early: Every oven runs a bit different, start looking a few minutes before the timer goes off for the tops to start browning.
- Let them Cool: Allow muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. This helps set the crumb and prevents soggy bottoms.
- Do not Overwork: Mix your wet ingredients just until combined. Then when you add the dry ingredients in, fold until you do not see any dry streaks.
Nutrition
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Tina says
These are so delicious! Such a burst of flavor with the cranberry orange combo! Thanks for the recipe!
Eva Filer says
I am so glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for letting us know 🙂
Eva Filer says
This recipe is a hit with the cranberry lovers in our family. And a perfect way to use up any leftover cranberry sauce - but truthfully, I sometimes make a fresh batch just to make these muffins! So light and fluffy.
Seija says
These were sooo tasty! I had leftovers from your cranberry sauce recipe, and this was the perfect way to use them up. The muffins turned out so moist and were perfectly sweet with just a hint of tartness.
Eva Filer says
These are definitely a fav over here too. So glad you like them, and our Cranberry sauce recipe too!