These cranberry orange muffins are bursting with tart sweet fresh cranberries and zippy citrus orange flavor.

A cranberry orange muffin broken open on a plate, with a mug of tea next to it and more muffins on a wire cooling rack. The text on the image says "Cranberry Orange muffins".

It typically takes a little bit of time for the weather to cool down here in San Francisco. While the rest of the country is enjoying the fall weather, we tend to get bright sunny days and warmth. It’s a nice shift from the cool fogginess of the summertime. But the indicator of autumn for me isn’t sweater weather. It’s the arrival of the fall produce, like apples, pears, figs and grapes.

And though I already to miss the sweet berries and stone fruit from the summertime, I can’t wait for the cranberries that start to pop up. From cranberry spiral bread, apple and cranberry pie, and homemade cranberry sauce I’m always excited to find the tart, bright-red berries at the store. My current favorite thing to do with them? Make these cranberry orange muffins! They’re super easy to make and are always an awesome treat for the morning or coffee time.

A cranberry orange muffin broken open on a ceramic plate showing the crumb and cranberries inside. Behind the plate is a mug of tea and more muffins on a wire cooling rack.

How do you make these muffins?

This cranberry orange muffin uses the “muffin method” in mixing the ingredients together. This involves whisking together the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Then combining the liquid ingredients of yogurt, sugar, melted butter, vanilla, eggs, orange zest, and orange juice, together in a different bowl.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl and fold it together until partially mixed.

Left image is liquid ingredients for the muffin batter being poured into the dry ingredients for the muffin batter. Right image is a silicone spatula folding and mixing the muffin batter together.

Add the cranberries at this point and continue folding until they are evenly distributed in the batter.

Left image is cranberries added to the muffin batter. Right image is cranberries folded and mixed into the muffin batter.

Divide the batter into two different muffin pans, alternating and leaving empty muffin cups between filled ones. Sprinkle the top with some coarse sugar and bake!

Left image is a muffin pan with alternative cups filled with muffin batter. Right image is a spoon sprinkling coarse Turbinado sugar on top of the muffin batter.

How do you get the large rise muffin top?

One of my favorite things about muffins is the large, oversized muffin tops that I sprinkle with coarse sugar. They’re often referred to as “bakery-style” muffins and they can be challenging to get in a home oven. Here are a few tips I have to make sure you get the highest rise and biggest bakery-style muffin top.

Fill the muffin cup to the top: A lot of muffin recipes have you fill the muffin tin cup just 3/4 of the way. If you want high-rising muffin tops, you need to fill the muffins all the way to the top of the cup! The only caveat is you need a muffin pan that is nonstick, or you need to make sure to grease the top of the muffin pan thoroughly. Otherwise, any overflowing muffin top will stick to the surface of the pan.
Use a little more leavening: You’ll notice my recipe has a lot of leavening in it for a muffin, with 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 3/4 teaspoons of baking soda. The extra leavening is helpful to give the muffin top rise. But you have to be careful, as you don’t want too much leavening in recipes. If you use too much, the baked good will rise to quickly, then collapse because it doesn’t set fast enough. It will also taste a bit too much like the chemical leavening. The little bit extra amount of leavening in this recipe is a good balance for this quick bake muffins.
Use a higher heat to bake: A higher heat in the oven gives the chemical leavening a jump start leading to something called “oven spring”. This leads to a higher and taller muffin top. If your oven runs too hot or you’re using a dark pan, you might want to lower the oven temperature to 400°F (more on this in the section below about using the right muffin pan).
Use two muffin pans: I use two different muffin pans, alternating the cups leaving an empty one in-between each filled cup. This is a trick I learned from professional bakeries like Levain in New Yorkwhich alternate their muffins in their large pans. Alternating the muffin batter allows the heat from the oven to circulate more efficiently around each muffin. This leads to a taller and more symmetrical muffin. If you only own one pan, see my section below on how to bake with one pan.

Cranberry orange muffins on a wire cooling rack.

How to bake this recipe with only one pan

My recipe instructions have you baking these muffins in two pans so you can get optimum rise and a bakery-style muffin top. But if you don’t have two muffin pans or don’t want to have to clean to different ones, you can easily bake them in one pan! Just fill the muffin cups with all the muffin batter evenly distributed (they should come up mostly to the top of each cup). Then bake as directed. Keep in mind that the muffins might not rise as high and they could be lopsided and less symmetrical. This is because the heat can’t circulate as well around each muffin cup. But the resulting muffins will still be delicious.

If you do want to achieve the bakery-style muffin top but still only have one muffin pan, you can bake the muffin batches! Just bake half the batter in the muffin pan as directed. Then let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Let the muffin pan itself cool until you can comfortably handle it (usually another 10 to 15 minutes). Then wipe out the muffin cups with a paper towel and re-grease it with melted butter (or line with paper cups). No need to wash the pan. Bake the remaining muffin batter and enjoy!

Left image is uncooked muffin batter in alternating cups in a muffin tin. Right image is muffins resting on a wire cooling rack.

What type of muffin pan should be used?

I discovered that not all muffin pans are the same when I was testing them for Serious Eats. Some have larger cup sizes and some have smaller. And they are often different colors, which can affect the baking.

After testing, my favorite muffin pan is light colored and has a nonstick coating. The USA muffin pan (affiliate link) is super sturdy and durable, with a nonstick silicone coating that I love. I also really liked the OXO muffin pan (affiliate link) and the William Sonoma pan, both of which have great nonstick coating (though the WS pan is a little pricey).

All that said, if you own a muffin pan that is darker colored, I suggest lowering the oven heat down to 400°F and checking on the muffins slightly on the earlier side (15 minutes). Darker colors absorb more heat and that will lead to faster baking.

A cranberry orange muffin broken open on a plate, with a mug of tea next to it and more muffins on a wire cooling rack.

How do you store these muffins?

Store these muffins at room temperature for up to 3 days in an airtight container, resealable Ziploc bag, or under a cake dome. You can also freeze these muffins for later. Place them on a baking sheet in the freezer for 2 hours or until they are frozen solid. Then store them in a resealable freezer bag or airtight container for up to 2 months.

If you like these cranberry orange muffins, check out these other muffin recipes:

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Cranberry Orange Muffins

These cranberry orange muffins are packed with sweet tart bright-red cranberries. They’re easy to make and a great breakfast, brunch or coffee/tea snack. I have a few tricks to give them a bakery-style feel in my section above, including baking them in two muffin pans. But if you only own one muffin pan or don’t feel like washing two different ones, I have a note at the bottom of the recipe on how to do that.

Servings

Calories 210kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Muffin batter

2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup plain yogurt 250 g
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
1/2 cup unsalted butter melted, 115 g
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Zest of 1 medium orange
1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice roughly from 1 medium orange
2 cups fresh cranberries 210 g

Topping

1/4 cup Turbinado sugar sparkling sugar, or white sugar

To prepare pan

3 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Use a balloon whisk and vigorously stir the dry ingredients together until well blended.
Place the yogurt, sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract, eggs, orange zest, and orange juice in different bowl and beat together thoroughly with a whisk.
Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and then gently fold and stir the ingredients together with a large silicone spatula or wooden spoon until most of the dry ingredients are incorporated but you still see some flour.
Add the cranberries. Fold and mix into the batter.
Brush every other alternating muffin pan with melted butter and repeat with a second pan. If you have a darker colored muffin pan, see my note below or only own one pan, see my note below. Alternately, line every other cup with a cupcake paper liner.
Fill each greased cup (or paper lined cup) with muffin batter for each pan. The batter should fill the cup almost to the top. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with 1 teaspoon of Turbinado sugar, sparkling sugar or white sugar.
Bake the pans for 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans after 10 minutes (or bake each pan individually in turn). The muffins are done with a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling on a wire rack.

Notes

1. Dark colored muffin pans bake faster because dark colors absorb heat faster. If you own a dark colored muffin pan, reduce the heat to 400°F and check the muffins at 15 minutes, adjusting the time if necessary. See my section above for more information.

2. If you only own one muffin pan, you can either opt to bake all the muffins at once in one single pan. The bake time should be the same. Just be aware that the resulting muffins won’t rise as high or maybe slightly lopsided, as the oven heat won’t circulate as well around all the muffin cups.

Or you can bake the muffins in batches. Just bake half the muffins as directed. After waiting 5 minutes for the muffins to cool, release the muffins and move them to a cooling rack. Let the pan cool down (another 5 to 10 minutes) until you can comfortably handle it and wipe out the pan with a paper towel (no need to wash it). Then brush it again with melted butter or line alternate cups with paper liners and bake the rest of the muffin batter.

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