Naturally sweetened gluten free cranberry orange muffins will suck toxins out of your bloodstream and re-purpose them for solving the earth’s energy crisis.
In spite of my love for the color green, people with accents, Guinness, and food that involves meat, potatoes, cabbage and/or cheese, I somehow took a flying hop, skip and leap right over St. Patrick’s Day this year like it didn’t mean a dern thing.
Instead, my friends and I went wine tasting in Murphys, CA over the weekend to celebrate Irish Day via wine. And chocolate. And Cards Against Humanity. There was the detox before the re-tox. And from there, just tox.ins.  Naturally, I have since been re-detoxing like I invented the beetroot – a process I hope to repeat weekly. Needless to say, the St. Paddy’s green beer did not occur this time around.
Cranberry orange muffins have been my favorite since I was a wee tyke. The combination of flavors has always just worked for me, which means eating in bulk is bound to happen. Substituting nutrition into the muffin yields the ultimate excuse to continue volume eating muffin after muffin. Made using coconut milk instead of oil or dairy, almond meal and brown rice flour in place of all-purpose flour, and pure maple syrup to keep it naturally sweet, this recipe is actually quite healthful for you.
So whether you’re raising the roof in the gluten-averse house or simply looking for a delicious yet nutritious approach to a timeless classic, you’ll love this recipe and its disappearing act.
Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup almond meal/flour
- 2/3 cup brown rice flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a muffin tray with muffin liners (or skip the muffin liners and spray holes using cooking oil)
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the first five (wet) ingredients.
- In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the remaining (dry) ingredients.
- Pour the wet mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry mixture and stir until combined.
- Fill the muffin holes 2/3 of the way up.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until muffins test clean.
- Allow muffins to cool at least 1 hour before removing the muffin liner and enjoying! (Note: the muffins will stick to the muffin liner if you don't allow them enough time to cool).
Zzzttt. Zztttt. Glad you aren’t totally zapped. So, your red curls aren’t Irish? (Ours are). But, we celebrate our heritage by eating large quantities of corned beef and cabbage. No green beer. That’s just not right. Did you know that Chicago turns the river green? It’s normal color by the time it meanders past us, but yeah. Totally green. Only in Chicago.
From what I hear, my red curls aren’t Irish. I’m mostly German with some Scandanavian (I say that like it’s a thing, but I guess I truly am part Finnish, Norwish (ha!) and Swedish)…and there’s a bunch of other things in there too…Irish is one of those things, but it’s a drop in the bucket. Anyhoo! I was bummed I didn’t get my corned beef and cabbage on because I simply was too lazy to plan ahead. I did hear once upon a time that Chicago does the green river and always thought it would be fun to see that. Hope Steph got to enjoy all the green festivities amidst her busy work day. Hope you had a delicious St. Paddy’s and a wonderful weekend!!!
http://dunlap-illinois.blogspot.com/2014/03/st-patricks-chicago-15th-march-2014.html History lesson of the day. 🙂
Weekends with lady friends, wine, chocolate and Cards Against Humanity are the best! Though a morning spent with these muffins might be just as good. Because YUMMY.
YES! It was so much fun! I had never played Cards Against Humanity and am now obsessed with it. Adult Apples to Apples? HECK YES! Hope you had a great weekend, my dear!
We did nothing this year. No green beer. No Guinness. No nothin’. Instead, like you, I consumed more than my fair share of wine. These wee little muffins look fantastic. Heading over to visit the recipe.
Ha! Cheers to wine!! I do feel like I should do myself a solid and celebrate St. Paddy’s late, but there’s nothing like a tall bottle…errrr…glass of wine. Sluuuurp!
I’d go wine tasting any day over drinking a Guinness and eating green food. Glad you had a great weekend. These muffins look fantastic!
Oh man, I am so happy I skipped the whole green beer thing this year! I actually made Mexican food for dinner! Oh well! These look fab and you KNOW I am headed to Stephie’s blog for this recipe!
I think you celebrated St. Paddy’s day perfectly!! Way better than I did, which was not. At all. Shame on me.
These muffins look amazing!! Totally breakfast-worthy. Off to check them out!
We had Indian food the day we celebrated St Patricks day… So clearly we missed the mark. No green beer, either. but at least there was beer.
Ermygosh I had to pin these immediately! Love love love the combo of crans and oj, so totes making these after my thesis defense! NOMNOM. Then I have an excuse to eat like the whole pan….right??
Look at that texture! I want them ALL! I love the flavor combo and I skipped over posting St. Paddy’s day recipes… so I’m with ya on these muffins… all the way!
These look divine! 🙂
I love a good fruity, citrusy muffin and these look mouthwatering, Julia! Pass the butter!
ZAP!! Just kidding. I’d never zap you. Thanks for sharing the muffins in up in my hood. You da best!
I’m so glad to hear y’all had fun in Murphys! I much rather drink wine than green beer…and then stuff my face with cranberry orange muffins! These look perfect and I love that flavor combo.
I love this flavor combo and the texture of these looks out of this world goood!
Can you use fresh cranberries?
Can frozen cranberries be used? If so, would you alter any of the other ingredients or change the method any? Thank you.
You can use frozen cranberries without making additional changes 🙂
Thinking about substituting coconut flour for the rice flour.
Hi Laurie,
Coconut flour is much more absorbent than rice flour, so the recipe will likely need to be altered if you make that switch.