cranberry muffins

I have got to get more creative with the post titles. I think I just run out of steam.

Did some more weekend morning baking again this Saturday. I thought muffins would be a nice morning food - ready before princess ballet and tap class, just in time for when Josh woke up. The most workable fruit I had was cranberries, so I used the KA basic muffin recipe, which has a good dozen variations listed, and added cranberries. The coolest thing about this recipe is the batter supposedly keeps for a week in the fridge. So in theory, you can mix up a batch, bake off three or four to feed the family, and then make yourself hot muffins in about 20 minutes any morning that week. Nice!

They recommended letting the berries stew in oj, water, or alcohol before incorporating them. I had no oj, didn't want spiked muffins, and thought apple juice would sub nicely for water. It's only 2.5 tablespoons, and since cranberries are so tart, the extra sweet can't hurt. The recipe wasn't clear on whether to drain the berries before stirring them in, so I didn't. The muffins came out great in any event.

I had demerara sugar on hand, so I sprinkled some on top for that nice sugary crunch. I actually have another sugar with an even larger grain, the name of which I don't know, that my mother-in-law bought me for tea. Maybe I'll try that next time just for fun, but the demerara grains felt just the right size.

I am a huge cranberry fan, and in each bite, you get a perfect burst of cranberry. They are definitely a little tart, which doesn't much bother me. I added about another tablespoon of sugar to the recipe to compensate, but if you like a sweeter muffin, it might be worth using another fruit instead. These were delicious - and who could argue with hot muffins on a weekend morning? Not Boy-o, apparently... he gave his usual, "want some!" declaration before mowing down every bite put in front of him.