Description
Transform leftover cranberry sauce into bakery-style coffee cake muffins! These tender, buttery muffins feature a surprise cranberry center, tangy-sweet cranberry topping, and an irresistible cinnamon-cardamom crumb topping. Perfect for holiday brunches, weekend breakfasts, or using up Thanksgiving leftovers.
Ingredients
Crumb Topping:
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground green cardamom
- Pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
Muffins:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 cup cranberry sauce (whole-berry preferred; simmer briefly if runny)
Optional:
- 1 teaspoon orange zest (stir into cranberry sauce if it lacks citrus)
Instructions
Throw flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, salt in a bowl. Mix. Pour melted butter in. Stir with a fork til it clumps. Leave it alone. Flour needs time to soak up the butter.
Oven to 375. Line the pan with those paper cups.
Flour, baking powder, cinnamon. Whisk together. Set aside. Doing this separate prevents overmixing.
Beat butter and both sugars 2-3 minutes. Should look fluffy and lighter. This step matters. Air bubbles make these not dense.
Eggs one at a time. Beat after each. Then buttermilk, sour cream, vanilla. Mix til smooth. Looks weird and separated sometimes. Normal.
Mixer on low. Add all the flour stuff. Mix til you don’t see flour. Batter’s really thick. Like thick cookie dough. Stop there.
Tablespoon batter in each cup. Spread it around. Half tablespoon cranberry sauce right in the middle. Not near the edges. More batter on top. Cover that cranberry completely. Tiny bit of sauce on top. This layering keeps it from sinking or leaking.
Pile that crumb on. 2-3 tablespoons each. Pile it high. Press a little so it stays.
20-25 minutes. Crumb’s golden, toothpick in the muffin comes out clean. Don’t stab the cranberry part, always sticky. Mine need 23 minutes. Start checking at 20.
Let them sit in the pan 5-10 minutes. They’ll fall apart otherwise. Move to a rack. I eat one immediately every time. Burn my mouth every time.
Notes
- Orange zest is your friend! If your cranberry sauce tastes flat or was made without citrus, stir in 1 teaspoon of orange zest before using. The brightness makes SUCH a difference!
- Don’t overmix the batter! Mix just until the flour disappears. A few small lumps are totally fine—they’ll bake out. Overmixing develops gluten, which makes muffins tough and dense.
- Use an ice cream scoop for the batter layers—it makes portioning so much easier and ensures all your muffins are the same size (which means they’ll bake evenly!).
- Check at 20 minutes because every oven is different. You want the crumb topping golden and a toothpick to come out clean from the cakey part.
- Big muffin alert: This batter is GENEROUS. Depending on how much you fill each cup, you might get 12-16 muffins. I like making 12 big bakery-style ones, but you can stretch it if needed!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American