There really is no excuse for using cranberries and oranges in the heat of summer.
They are most decidedly winter fruits. And it is technically still summer. Technically.
But the kids are back in school, and white pants are out of season. So it is almost ok. If I lived in Australia, it would be the perfect time of year for these.
You see, I might have mentioned that I wanted to make some orange cardamom muffins. Something light & citrusy for my 2 hour commute to and from work. Nothing fancy pants, just good, bright flavors.
Well, someone heard orange cranberry rather than orange cardamom, and pulled a bag of cranberries out of the freezer for me. It didn’t register that they weren’t out for something Mamacakes was baking until they were completely thawed. It was a use or waste situation.
So, I decided to layer some flavors. Brown butter. Orange. Cranberry. Cardamom.
These might be my new favorite muffins. Oh, and the extra bonus part? No mixer required.
| Cranberry Orange Gluten-Free Muffins with Cardamom and Brown Butter |
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- 100 grams (7 tablespoons) unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange extract (if you have it, if not it is ok to leave this out)
- 210 grams (1 1/2 cups) gluten-free all purpose flour*
- 150 grams (3/4 cup) sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 150 grams (2 cups) fresh or froze then thawed cranberries
- for the glaze
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 115 grams (1 cup) powdered sugar
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the upper third of the oven.
- Line a cupcake tin with paper liners.
- In a small sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and keep cooking until it starts to brown on the bottom, stirring frequently. You will notice the butter starts to smell nutty. It is a pretty quick turn from brown to burnt once the butter starts to brown, so watch it carefully. Once it is golden brown, remove it from the heat.
- Whisk together the juice, egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract and orange extract (if using).
- In a separate bowl (a medium sized mixing bowl is perfect), whisk together the gluten-free all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom.
- Add the juice mixture and the butter to the flour and stir until combined. Then, stir in the cranberries.
- Divide evenly into your muffin tin (I used a large ice cream scoop and got 16 muffins rather than 12).
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, they are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the tin for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the tin and move to a metal cooling rack that is sitting on top of parchment or newspaper.
- Whisk together the orange juice and powdered sugar, spoon it onto the warm muffins. Some will spill over, and that is ok.
*Personally, my favorite gluten-free all purpose blend is the [url href=”http://cup4cup.com/”]Cup4Cup[/url] available from Williams-Sonoma. You could also use Jules’ Nearly Normal Flour, Better Batter or the King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free blend. A bean based flour will not work in these muffins.
Clearly, there is something wrong with me. I woke up at 6am to work out & bake muffins before going to work. I really wanted something cinnamon raisin. And, after seeing on how quickly these muffins were gone (who can resist still-warm muffins?) they were quite a success.