Cranberry Coconut Muffins

 

Happy Friday!  Just have to point out that this is my 3rd post of the week!  I don’t anticipate every week being this productive, but I am glad to start the year off tackling some of my blogging goals.  Now for a yummy, fast and simple recipe for your weekend…crancoconutmuffin2

With half a bag of cranberries still in my fridge, and some ideas brewing for what to do to this muffin recipe, I whipped these up during nap time.  Using pineapple juice in the last muffins led me to the thought of coconut and I just so happened to have both coconut oil and coconut milk in my pantry.  Just like last time I wished I’d had a can of crushed pineapple to add in.  Maybe I’ll get around to making a tropical cranberry muffin one of these days.  But that would involve me buying another bag of cranberries and then having leftovers after making the muffins which would then require me to make something else with cranberries.  I might have to put it on hold until next holiday season.  I might be muffin-ed out.

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I’ve sung the praises of coconut oil before.  This zucchini bread is one of my favorite things.  Coconut oil behaves pretty much the same as oil and butter in a baked good.  But it’s rock hard at temps at which vegetable oil is liquid and butter is spreadable.  It remains solid until is reaches temperatures above 76°F.  I warmed it in the microwave before using it in this recipe.  I keep muffins and breads in the fridge unless I know they’re going to be eaten within a couple of days to keep them from going bad.  With the coconut oil in the muffins they come out of the fridge very hard.  A quick warm up in the microwave and they become nice and soft and ready to devour.  I found some great information on this blog about using coconut oil and its health benefits.  I’d never thought about cutting in to pastry dough!

Coconut is a main and noticeable ingredient in these muffins.  There’s coconut oil, milk and flakes.  So the coconut averse may not be into these.  If you do want the benefits of the coconut oil, just sub milk or buttermilk and leave out the coconut flakes.  The coconut oil alone shouldn’t make a coconut hater turn up their nose, but I don’t find coconut oil alone to be too coconutty, especially after being baked into something.  Correct me if I am wrong!

On another note, I got this wonderful spreader for Christmas from my mother-in-law.  “No such things as too much butter” is definitely something I find to be true.  You can get your own at For Such a Time Designs on Etsy.  She hand stamps pieces of flatware and I’ve been perusing her site quite a bit lately.  Check her out!

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Coconut Cranberry Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil, warmed to liquid
  • 3/4 cup lite coconut milk, shake the can before opening and measuring
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Grease and sugar a 12-cup muffin tin.
  3. Combine flour, powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
  4. Beat sugar and coconut oil until combined, then beat in coconut milk and egg.
  5. Add flour mixture to the liquid ingredients and mix just to combine.
  6. Fold in the cranberries and flaked coconut.
  7. Divide batter equally among the cups.  Sprinkle with raw sugar or flaked coconut.
  8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool for a few minutes in the pan before transferring to a rack to cool completely.