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As soon as cranberries start showing up in the produce section, I’m making these sourdough cranberry orange muffins. The flavor of the tart cranberry and sweet orange take over and I can’t get enough. Add a sprinkle of orange zested sugar on top of these muffins and you have a pretty special breakfast or after school snack. So grab your sourdough discard and that bag of cranberries at the store and give these muffins a whirl. I think you’re going to love them!
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Why You’ll Love Cranberry Orange Sourdough Muffins
- Flavor: You’ll love how the orange and cranberry flavors combine in these sourdough muffins, just like my cranberry orange sourdough quickbread!
- Discard Recipe: These cranberry orange muffins use up sourdough discard.
- Topping: The orange-zested sugar – it takes these over the top and is SO good!
- Quick and Easy: This is a simple recipe. Whip these up and in about 40 minutes you can have fresh and delicious muffins ready to eat – baking time included!
Important Ingredients
- Sourdough Discard – Use discard straight from the refrigerator or bubbly sourdough starter. I use 100% hydration sourdough (equal parts of flour and water).
- Vegetable Oil – You can also substitute any neutral-flavored oil if you prefer.
- Unsalted Butter – I always bake with unsalted butter, as there is a variable salt content across different brands of salted butter.
- Buttermilk – Including buttermilk helps make these sourdough muffins light, fluffy, and moist.
- Orange Zest and Orange Juice – A combination of freshly zested orange and orange juice adds rich flavor to these muffins.
- Egg – 1 large egg is used in this recipe.
- Vanilla Extract – You can use imitation vanilla extract or the real stuff.
- Granulated Sugar – These sourdough muffins are sweetened with granulated sugar.
- All purpose flour – All-purpose or pastry flour works best in this recipe.
- Cornstarch – Including cornstarch helps give these sourdough muffins their light and fluffy texture.
- Baking Powder – Baking powder works as a leavening agent in these muffins.
- Cranberries – Fresh cranberries roughly chopped in a blender balance the flavor and texture in these muffins.
- Salt – Salt balances flavor—don’t leave it out.
Substitutions
- Cranberries: You can substitute dried cranberries for the fresh cranberries in this recipe. The texture will be a little bit different and not quite as tart.
- Buttermilk: In place of buttermilk, mix together equal parts/weights of sour cream and milk and substitute for the buttermilk in the recipe.
- Vegetable Oil: Any neutral-flavored oil can be substituted for the vegetable oil.
- Cornstarch: Leave it out and substitute flour if you don’t have cornstarch on hand.
- Sourdough Discard: Substitute ripe, bubbly active sourdough starter if you don’t have discard and want to make these muffins.
How to Make Cranberry Orange Sourdough Muffins
Mix Batter
To make cranberry orange muffins with sourdough discard, begin by adding sourdough discard, melted butter and vegetable oil to a small bowl. Whisk together until mostly combined. Add the buttermilk, orange zest, orange juice, egg, vanilla extract and granulated sugar. Whisk together.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Mix together all-purpose flour, baking powder, cornstarch and salt. Give the fresh cranberries a whirl in the blender until chopped. Add fresh cranberries to the flour mixture and fluff together with a fork until evenly distributed.
Pour the liquid ingredients on top of the flour mixture and stir gently a few times until thoroughly moistened. A few streaks are okay, but your sourdough muffin batter should be mostly combined.
Scoop & Top
Prepare to bake the muffins by preheating the oven to 425º Fahrenheit and either spraying a 12 cup muffin tin or cutting square pieces of parchment paper to fit the holes of your muffin tin. Scoop muffin batter into the muffin tins, filling the tins about 3/4 of the way full. You should have enough batter for 12 muffins.
Top your muffin batter. Add orange zest and reserved sugar in a small bowl. Rub together with your fingers to release the orange oils. Sprinkle orange sugar on top of each muffin.
Bake the Muffins
Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. After 5 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350º Fahrenheit and bake for another 16-18 minutes. If you fill the muffin tins less full, they may bake a little faster. Check that muffins are done by inserting a toothpick into the center of one and making sure it comes out clean (there may be some cranberry residue). Pull muffins out of the oven and let rest for about 5 minutes in the pan before removing to a cooling rack to cool and enjoy!
Amy’s Recipe Tip
To long-ferment sourdough muffins, mix up the batter without the cranberries. Cover it and let sit in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. This will give the discard time to pre-digest some of the gluten in the batter. Preheat your oven, stir in chopped cranberries and bake according to recipe directions straight from the refrigerator. You may need to add a couple extra minutes of baking time to account for the colder batter.
How to Store Leftovers
Leftover muffins can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for a couple days. After that stick in the freezer to preserve freshness.
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Frequently Asked Questions
We add sourdough discard to many recipes for good flavor, texture and to use it up! The older and stronger in smell the discard you use is, the more sour flavor you will have in your muffins.
You don’t have to if you have good quality muffin tins. I like to spray my muffin tins with cooking spray if I’m not using muffin liners. You can also make liners from parchment paper by cutting them to fit the muffin well and scooping the batter on top of the parchment paper.
I think these would work well substituting half of the all-purpose flour with a soft white whole wheat flour.
Cranberry Orange Sourdough Muffins
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Equipment
Ingredients
Cranberry Orange Sourdough Muffins
- 120 grams sourdough discard about 1/2 cup, see recipe notes, about 1/2 cup
- 75 grams unsalted butter melted, about 5 Tablespoons
- 35 grams vegetable oil, about 3 Tablespoons
- 80 grams buttermilk shaken, about 1/3 cup
- 8 grams orange zest, about 1 Tablespoon
- 20 grams freshly squeezed orange juice, about 2 Tablespoons
- 1 large egg , about 50 grams
- 6 grams vanilla extract , about 1.5 teaspoons
- 200 grams granulated sugar, about 1 cup
- 230 grams all purpose flour, about 1 3/4 cup
- 10 grams salt , about 1.5 teaspoons
- 10 grams baking powder , about 2 teaspoons
- 15 grams cornstarch , about 1.5 Tablespoons
- 100 grams fresh cranberries, roughly chopped in a blender (about 3/4 cup), see recipe notes
Orange Sugar Topping
- 3 grams orange zest, about 1 teaspoon
- 20 grams granulated sugar, about 2 Tablespoons
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425º Fahrenheit.
- Add sourdough discard, melted butter and vegetable oil to a small bowl. Whisk together until mostly combined. Whisk in the buttermilk, orange zest, orange juice, egg, vanilla extract and granulated sugar. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, cornstarch and salt. Give the fresh cranberries a whirl in the blender until chopped. Add fresh cranberries to the flour mixture and fluff together with a fork until evenly distributed.
- Pour the liquid ingredients on top of the flour mixture and stir gently a few times until thoroughly moistened. A few streaks of flour are okay!
- Spray a 12 cup muffin tin or cut square pieces of parchment paper to fit the holes of your muffin tin. Scoop muffin batter into the muffin tins, filling the tins about 3/4 of the way full. You should have enough batter for 12 muffins.
- To a small bowl stir together orange zest and reserved sugar. Rub together with your fingers to release the orange oils. Sprinkle orange sugar on top of the muffin batter.
- Bake muffins for 5 minutes at 425 degrees. Then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 16-18 more minutes. If you fill the muffin tins less full, they may bake a little faster. Check that muffins are done by inserting a toothpick into the center of one and making sure it comes out clean (there may be some cranberry residue). Pull muffins out of the oven and let rest for about 5 minutes in the pan before removing to a cooling rack to cool and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello!
Could I use more sourdough discard? Like doubling the amount? Would I then reduce the liquid and flour (like 120g sourdough moré= 60g water+60g flour less)?
If you wanted to do that, then yes you would reduce the liquid and flour. It would probably increase the sourdough flavor a bit and it might change your texture a bit, but I think you can definitely experiment with it.
I had to rate this. Probably my first time rating anything but they are that good. The texture was amazing!!!
Thanks for the review!