One of my favorite times of year is when fresh cranberries are in season.  I love the way they pop in your mouth when you use them in a muffins.  I buy bags of them and freeze them for later in the year but honestly, I like the taste best in the fall and winter.  Spring and summer have their own flavors that make it hard for me to bring out a frozen bag of cranberries.

For the first time, I found organic cranberries at Giant!  How cool is that.  Cranberries are grown on vines during a 16 month cycle and flooded with water until they all float to the top of a bog.  That is cool too.  I read up on it just for fun and have attached the link.

Preheat oven at 400°.  I like to cook my muffins quickly and this seems to be the perfect temperature in my oven.  You can play around with how hot your oven is, watch the muffins and see how they are at the 8 minute point, 10 minute and a bit more until browned on top.  Makes 12 muffins.

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup brown sugar

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

Mix together.

Wet Ingredients:

¼ cup vegetable oil

juice of one orange

1 cup Greek yogurt

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together.

Add wet ingredients to dry, mix only enough to moisten all the ingredients.  Fold in 1 cup of cranberries (you can slice them in half but it is tedious work.)

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out muffins.  Sprinkle top with raw sugar to make it sparkle.  Pop in the oven for 10-12 minutes.  

Enjoy with a cup of tea or with three hungry boys.  For the first time ever, my oldest decided he liked these muffins and quickly ate three muffins before I could say stop, save some for the rest of us.  

Ah, sweet success.  You can easily substitute lemon and blueberries, cider and apples, lime and strawberries… you get my drift.  I have even replaced the yogurt and juice with mashed bananas, cinnamon and ¼ cup Chia seed gel for banana muffins or pumpkin puree, spices and ¼ cup Chia seed gel for pumpkin muffins.  The options are many, you just need to take a risk and you might find an even better combination!