Sweet vanilla orange muffins topped with a sticky cranberry jam.

WHAT’S GOING ON HERE:

Muffin Batter: For this recipe i use my standard vanilla muffin it’s a blend of flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder for rising. combined with the wet mix of milk, egg, and orange juice.

Vanilla:  Good vanilla is the key to great baking

Orange & Rind: To help the orange flavor come  through in the muffin I use both the juice and rind. Instead of just the zest i use the entirety of the rind with minimal pith. Lightly chopping the rind helps it swim freely through the batter resulting in sweet chewy little bites of candied orange.

Butter: There isn’t too much butter in this muffin batter. The butter really comes in handy when coating the muffin tins. Ditch the liner and cooking spray and grease each muffin tin with softened butter. Using softened butter gives the sugar something to stick to. Melted butter can pool to the bottom and cold butter doesn’t glide all that well.

Sugar: When coating the muffin tins i use both white sugar and turbinado sugar. Turbinado sugar comes in much larger crystals than white sugar. It has a lot of caramel and mollases flavor that melts nicely into the outer edges of the muffins. The white sugar gets in all the nooks and crannies. Its gives the outside of the muffins a nice sugar crack. It also insures the muffins pop out much easier.

Cranberry Jam: Cranberry jam is only three ingredients. Cranberries, white sugar and cranberry juice. Combined together then reduced down into a syrup make them a sweet topper for the muffins. The jam is done once its reduced enough to coat the back of a spoon. Adding the jam to the muffins once the jam is slightly cooled keeps the jam from running from the top.

TIPS & TRICKS FOR THE BEST ORANGE CRANBERRY JAM MUFFINS:

dry & liquid: muffins are easy and they don’t need any special treatment. simply separate the wet ingredients from the dry ingredients. and add the dry into the wet. mix only enough to completely combine the batter then stop.

making the jam: the jam cooks for around as long as it takes to make and cook the muffins. keeping the jam at a steady boil will first cause the cranberries to release their natural juices. from there it will tighten up and start to form a thick jam.

prepping the orange: instead of using a zester for this recipe i use a peeler and sometimes a pairing knife. peel the orange using the peeler and gently run a knife though the peel into thin strips. toss the oranges lightly in sugar so once they bake in the oven they candy and soften.

muffin tins: prep the muffin tins with butter and sugar. the sugar sticks to the softened butter. once you add in the muffin batter it forms a sugar butter cracked outside that adds allot of extra texture to the muffin.

topping the muffins: Top the muffins with cane sugar similarly to the bottom they get a nice cracked shell. once the muffins are ready for topping lightly press with your thumb print to give the jam a place to nest in.

SIMILAR INGREDIENTS TO:

1. CRANBERRY CHIA JAM
2. VANILLA SWEET POTATO BUTTER
3. DARK CHOCOLATE AND CHERRY MUFFINS

ENJOY THIS RECIPE WITH:

1. VANILLA SWEET POTATO BUTTER
2. FRENCH TOAST MUFFIN CUPS
3. PINEAPPLE DARJEELING SMOOTHIE