Cranberry Streusel Muffins are wonderful breakfast recipe with the perfect balance of flavors with tartness from fresh cranberries, moist buttermilk batter and sweet cinnamon pecans streusel.
Buttermilk Cranberry Muffins
These amazingly moist and super flavorful Cranberry Streusel Muffins were born from my beloved Rhubarb Streusel Coffee Cake recipe. I needed to make something for our local library’s bake sale and I racked my brain with what was one of my favorite recipes. That Coffee Cake recipe is at the top of the list!
I didn’t think coffee cake would go over as well as muffins would at a bake sale, especially seeing you can’t divide it up into smaller plates to sell very well. It also wasn’t rhubarb season sadly. Cranberries have a very similar tartness to rhubarb though, so I thought they would be the perfect fruit for these buttermilk muffins.
How to Make Fresh Cranberry Muffins
This delicious muffin recipe starts out with a simple buttermilk, brown sugar, shortening and vanilla batter. I know, I know, everyone likes to hate on shortening, but at the end of the day it does create a lighter crumb for cake batters like this.
Fresh cranberries are folded in, but if you only have frozen they will work as well. Just be sure to thaw them and pat them dry before folding into the batter.
Cinnamon Pecan Streusel Topping
The finishing touch that really makes these cranberry muffins shine is the easy streusel made of granulated sugar, finely chopped pecans and cinnamon. I recommend using a food processor or nut chopper to get them nice and fine for this particular recipe.
Just mix the streusel topping together so it is well combined and spoon it on top of each muffin. While it bakes, the sugar will caramelize some and the nuts will toast nicely.
It not only adds a nice crunch to the top of the muffin, but a great sweetness to balance out the cranberries as well. I don’t recommend skipping the streusel or you will have overly tart muffins.
More amazing fresh cranberry recipes!
- Cranberry Orange Custard Pie
- Spicy Cranberry Salsa
- Cranberry Goat Cheese Appetizers
- Pressure Cooker Cranberry Balsamic Pork Loin
Cranberry Streusel Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1/2 c. butter flavor shortening
- 1 3/4 c. brown sugar
- 1 c. buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 c. flour
- 2 c. fresh cranberries
Streusel
- 1/2 c. granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 c. pecans finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- In a large bowl, combine beat the brown sugar and shortening until well combined. Stir in the buttermilk, egg and vanilla until mixed well.
- Add the flour, baking soda and salt to the bowl and mix well. Fold in the cranberries.
- Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and fill each one 2/3 full with batter.
- Finely chop the pecans using a food processor or nut chopper. In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon, sugar and finely chopped pecans to make the streusel.
- Top all of the muffins with a spoonful of streusel mixtures.
- Bake at 325° for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool to room temperature before storing in an airtight container.
Alison LaFortune says
Made these for a Sunday brunch with the family and they were a bit hit!
Malinda Linnebur says
Surprised my family and made these to go with breakfast the other day and they went nuts over them!! Thank you for the recipe!
Julie says
My kids loved these! So easy to grab and go – plus tons of flavor! Thanks for sharing!
Megan says
I loved the pecan streusel on these! Overall a delicious recipe, I’ll be making these over and over!