These cranberry muffins with fresh cranberries are moist and delicious, but also good for you!
Ours are lower in sugar than most cranberry muffin recipes, plus full of whole oats for added fiber and of course, all those fresh cranberries.
Best of all, kids love these muffins. Just ask my trusty helpers.
tips for making cranberry muffins with fresh cranberries
There are a few things to know before getting into this project:
- It’s a fairly wet dough. Don’t panic.
- Use any shape of muffin pan you like. See some of my favorites below.
- These muffins are pretty good for you! Each batch is brimming with fresh cranberries, whole oats and yogurt.
Low-Sugar Cranberry Muffins with Fresh Cranberries
I updated this recipe, reducing the amount of fresh cranberries to 2 cups. We liked our muffins very moist so you could still use the 3 cups but 2 cups will likely turn out to have a more cake-like consistency. (Also, see the comments where Libby suggested baking the cranberries for a bit first.)
- Yield: 18 1x
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup plain yogurt
- zest and juice of 1 orange
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cup whole oats
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin pans liberally.
- In a medium mixing bowl, use a whisk or beaters to fluff up the eggs. Add the butter, applesauce, honey or syrup, sugar, yogurt, orange zest plus juice and vanilla. Mix up well. Add dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking powder, soda and salt. Stir until almost incorporated then add cranberries and mix until just blended.
- Pour into prepared muffin pans, almost to the top.
- Bake mini muffins for 15-17 minutes. Cool for about 3 minutes in pan, then turn out on a rack.
Our delicious cranberry muffins with fresh cranberries are a family favorite and we hope you enjoy them too.
Are cranberries good for you?
Yes, especially fresh cranberries. According to registered dietitian Jaclyn London, cranberries are bursting with vitamin C, antioxidants, fiber and prebiotics. However, don’t expect cranberries to cure a yeast infection, she advises. While a diet rich in fresh cranberries may help prevent infections, eating cranberries (or drinking cranberry juice) won’t help it go away.
My Favorite Muffin Pans
With four little kids at home, I’ve made thousands of muffins. Here are my favorite pans for getting the job done.
Wilton is one of my favorite brands and this non-stick muffin pan is no exception. Plus, it’s hard to argue with more than 5,000 positive reviews.
Mini muffin pans are perfect for feeding toddlers. Rachel Ray’s pan has the best reviews.
Dinosaurs
More ways to enjoy fresh cranberries
Whole Oat Cranberry Scones
Low-Sugar Cranberry Sauce
Want more healthy muffin ideas?
Browse through our whole collection of muffins packed with good-for-you ingredients or take a peek at the most popular recipes here:
Pumpkin Spice Mini Muffins
Applesauce Zucchini Muffins
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Thanks for this recipe! I can’t wait to try it. Any chance you can add a “print” button to your posts? 🙂
Hi Elizabeth! Hope it works out well for you — and yes, let me check out the print button options. Thanks for the suggestion and for stopping by. Let us know how the muffins go!
Hi Charity! The muffins are awesome. I think, next time, I won’t add the whole bag of cranberries because it almost seemed like there were too many in there to hold the shape…iif that makes sense! But that could just be me. They have a surprisingly sweet taste for so little sugar! Thanks for replying about the “print” button and for this yummy recipe.
That absolutely makes sense! Cranberries have so much juice that they really bring a lot of moisture to the muffins. Glad they turned out though, and thanks for the update! (I’ll keep you posted on any progress I make with the “print” button. Wish me luck!)
Addicted to your recipes ! I’m not always following all of the methods but this website is giving me tons of ideas !! … even I write it down some of it on post-it and put it on the wall of my kitchen… 🙂 thanks for the sharing. Greetings from Holland.
Hello to Holland! So happy to hear that our ideas are being put to use out there! Happiest of holidays and thanks for your note.
This recipe looks awesome. Cant wait to make these with my baby-girl. Your blog looks awesome too, its great to know there are “others” out there who insist on their kidos eating real food!
Hi Marcie! Thanks for your note and here’s to fighting the good fight! 🙂
I reduced the amount of moisture in the cranberries by baking them for half hour and letting them cool. When adding to the recipe, stir them in gently. Pecan pieces make a tasty addition.
Instead of all the eggs, baking powder baking soda, salt…I use Hodgen’s Mill Insta Bake mix. It is a whole wheat baking mix like Bisquick. Add your other wet ingredients. The total for Instabake Is l cup and 1 cup oats. Insta bake is my GO TO for many items like pie crust, cookies, pancakes cobbler and cakes.
Love the idea of baking the cranberries ahead of time to reduce moisture! Thanks, Libby. And pecans…yum. I haven’t heard of Insta Bake mix but it sounds like you’ve got everything you need right there. Thanks so much for your comment. I’ll try baking the cranberries next time and report back.
What do you mean by 1 orange zest and juice?
Good question, Katy! I clarified on the recipe post just now. I mean the zest and juice of one orange. Sorry about that. Sleep deprivation strikes again. 🙂
i usually am not a fan of kid pics in food blogs and bragging about them in general, but those are two little angels!
Ha! Thanks, Lisa. I hope I don’t have my bragging pants on too often, just trying to inspire. 😉 And it seems more often than not, commiserating is really what I do. Here’s to trying to feed some kids!
Thanks for the recipe! Need to add Pinterest !!
Sorry you do have Pinterest! ! Pinned and following 🙂
I came across this recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it out this morning with my four year old, assistant baker. We substituted blueberries and raspberries, as cranberries are not yet in season. Some of the muffins fell apart a bit because they were sooooo moist (maybe because of the substitution?) but the taste was on point! My four year old, who is a typical preschooler, and can be very picky, ate hers up in 5 seconds flat. Delicious! Thanks for posting.
Hi Veronica! I’m so glad they tasted good, especially to your little one. Yes, raspberries would probably be juicier than cranberries but I’ll make a note on the recipe about cooking time anyway, especially if others want or need to make substitutions down the road as well. Welcome to Foodlets!
Hello! These muffins look delicious, and I’m really glad they’re low sugar. I only have regular size muffin pans. How long should I bake them, since they will be larger than the mini muffins in your recipe?
Thanks,
Jennifer
These were delicious. What is the nutritional values…as in carbs etc
I love these muffins! It’s hard to find uses for fresh cranberries, too. I tweeked the ingredients so that it’s sugar free. I used Kroger sugar free maple flavored syrup and Lakanto golden monk fruit sweetener in place of brown sugar. According to WW they are 2 points per muffin. Enjoy!
I had leftover cranberries from another recipe and am so glad I found this one. It made a perfect Christmas muffin! I made just as directed but cut the recipe in half (only had 1 cup of cranberries). I filled the mix to the top of each muffin holder, and it yielded 10 nicely-domed muffins. Thank you!
I should have added that I made 10 nicely-domed regular-size muffins, not mini, and I baked them in 370 oven for 15 minutes. Thanks again.
So much good about this recipe.
Low sugar, whole wheat and oats
Pretty easy
Tastes Great