blue artichoke: Sunday Muffins: Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins

Snow! Wintry mix! Freezing rain! Ice pellets! Thunder-snow! All these words and phrases have been used to describe what it is that has been falling from the sky for the past few days. I don't like cold weather, but it's awesome outside. Slick like a skating rink. In fact, I saw three people ice skating down my road this afternoon. I'm a big fan of extreme weather, because there's nothing you can do but hunker down and ride it out.

I thought I'd be bored, stuck inside all weekend, so I thought of fun activities to keep occupied, such as going through my cabinets and reading food labels to see how many trans-fat items I have in the house right now. Sadly, I never made it to this game because I got too wrapped up in other fun projects, like wrapping Christmas presents, watching movies and taped television shows, baking muffins and doing laundry. Oh, well, that's a game for another snowy day.

The muffins I chose, in keeping with the cranberry theme for December, were pumpkin-cranberry. I was skeptical at first. I like pumpkin muffins and cranberry muffins, and I know that those flavors go together, but I expected to throw out this recipe. But no, they're good. Not excellent or better than each one separately, but far better than I anticipated. This recipe is a keeper! They were really moist, with a dark and rich flavor punctuated with the chewy sweet and sour dried cranberries. A real crowd pleaser, I'm sure.

Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins
This recipe doubles easily to feed a crowd. These are best warm, but you can make ahead to jump-start holiday cooking. Bake up to one month in advance, and place in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag. Let the muffins thaw at room temperature, and then microwave at MEDIUM-HIGH about 30 seconds to heat through.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large egg
2/3 cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped (such as Craisins) [I didn't bother chopping them. They're small enough - BA]
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and next 5 ingredients (though cloves); stir well with a whisk.

Combine granulated sugar and next 5 ingredients (through egg) in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 3 minutes). Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until combined. Fold in cranberries.

Place 12 paper muffin cup liners in muffin cups; coat liners with cooking spray. Spoon batter into prepared cups. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pan immediately; place on a wire rack.

Yield: 1 dozen (serving size: 1 muffin)

CALORIES 199 (14% from fat); FAT 3.2g (sat 0.4g,mono 1.6g,poly 0.9g); PROTEIN 2.8g; CHOLESTEROL 18mg; CALCIUM 38mg; SODIUM 195mg; FIBER 1.5g; IRON 1.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 41.1g

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2007

Comments

Boo dried cranberries! Unlike raisins, they do not re-puff into tiny balls of moist deliciousness when baked, unless vigorously pre-soaked. I always substitute fresh cranberries -- just buy a big bag and keep in the freezer. Please. Dried cranberries are perfect, however, for providing traction on slippery walkways.

Posted by: red meat | December 10, 2007 09:53 AM

In keeping with your pumpkin theme for the month, try this, the best ever ever ever pumpkin recipe, courtesy of Maida Haetter, baking goddess.

PUMPKIN GINGERBREAD
2 cups flour
3/4 tea salt
1 tea baking soda
1/4 tea baking powder
2 tea ground ginger
1/2 tea nutmeg
1/2 tea cinnamon
1/4 tea cloves
1/4 tea dry mustard
4 oz unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup strong brewed coffee
1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin
2 cups pecans, broken into large pieces

Butter a 9x5 loaf pan; dust it all over with fine, dry breadcrumbs.
Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and mustard.
Cream the butter; add in sugar and beat to mix.
Beat in eggs.
On low speed, add half of the dry ingredients, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Beat only until barely incorporated; mix in the coffee.
Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat only until incorporated; add the pumpkin and, scraping the bowl as needed, beat only until incorporated; remove bowl from mixer.
Stir in pecans.
Turn mixture into prepared pan; smooth the top.
Then, with the back of a spoon, form a trench down the middle, about ½ to 1 inch deep; the trench will prevent the middle from rising too high, although it will rise some anyhow and form a crack down the length of the cake (it is supposed to).
Bake 1 hour and 10-15 minutes at 350 in middle of oven, until the top feels slightly firm to touch and a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan for 10-15 minutes; remove to a rack to cool right side up. (Wrapping it and waiting a day or two will only improve the flavor, but you'll need Herculean willpower)

Posted by: red meat | December 10, 2007 10:13 AM

I always have a bag of "fresh" cranberries in my freezer, but sometimes prefer the chewy texture of dried cranberries in certain applications. I actually really like dried cranberries just as much, or more, than raisins.

Thanks for the recipe! Pumpkin month was November. December = cranberry. But gingerbread is all season long, so I'll try it out soon! Thanks.

Posted by: Blue Artichoke | December 10, 2007 02:59 PM

What's with the dried cranberry hate, Red Meat?

Not like they're cilantro!

;-)

Posted by: Red Momo | December 11, 2007 05:54 PM