White Chocolate Cranberry Muffins — Soft, fluffy, and bursting with cranberries in every bite! Perfect way to use your fresh cranberries!!
Fresh Cranberry Muffin Recipe
It’s that time of year for cranberries. I just love cranberries and they’re perfect in these muffins.
Sweet white chocolate pairs perfectly with the cranberries and balances their tartness. It’s one of my favorite flavor combinations.
The muffins are soft, fluffy, buttery, and ultra moist. A combination of sour cream (or Greek yogurt), buttermilk, and the natural juices from the cranberries all help to create moist muffins with a tender crumb.
I wish cranberry season wasn’t so short. You can freeze cranberries and they do freeze very well, but they’re really such a ‘now’ ingredient.
So many recipes to make, so little time.
What’s in the Fresh Cranberry Muffins?
To make these cranberry muffins with fresh cranberries, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Eggs
- Sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
- Buttermilk
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
- White chocolate chips
- Fresh cranberries
How to Make Cranberry Muffins
The cranberry muffin batter comes together like your typical muffin recipe. Whisk together the wet ingredients, add the dry, then fold in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.
After you get the batter in the muffin pan, top each muffin with a few cranberries. The cranberries add such an eye-catching pop of color and make the muffins irresistible.
To help create a nice domed top to the muffins, bake the muffins at 425F for 5 minutes before turning the oven down to 350F for the duration, another 18 to 20 minutes. Same principle as with popovers.
The intense burst of high heat for 5 minutes helps the muffins rise better. Because cranberries, climates, and ovens vary, keep a close eye on your muffins and bake until done, whatever that means in your oven.
Can I Use Frozen Cranberries?
Yes! I made these cranberry muffins with fresh cranberries, but frozen may be substituted. If using frozen, do not thaw them before adding them to the batter. You may need to add 1 to 2 minutes to the total bake time.
Can I Bake the Batter in a Loaf Pan?
I’m sure you could, although I haven’t tried it myself. You’d need to play around with the oven temperature / bake time though.
If you’re looking for a cranberry bread recipe, I recommend following my Cranberry Orange Bread recipe instead. I’ve made that recipe multiple times and know that it works.
Tips for Making the Best Cranberry Muffins
The recipe makes about 14 muffins, or 1 dozen plus a mini loaf. I love my mini loaf pans for that extra little bit of batter that I hate throwing out, but refuse to dirty another muffin pan for a couple muffins.
The loaf pan fits perfectly next to the muffin pan on the same oven rack so everything bakes evenly.
If desired, you may substitute the white chocolate chips with semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips. Both flavor pairings work well in this recipe!
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White Chocolate Cranberry Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt, lite versions are okay
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk, buttermilk recommended, but regular milk or cream may be substituted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 ¼ cups fresh cranberries, plus more for sprinkling (frozen may be substituted, do not thaw if using frozen)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F. Spray a Non-Stick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan and one mini loaf pan very well with floured cooking spray or grease and flour the pan; set aside. (recipe yields about 14 muffins, or one dozen plus one mini loaf; or simply discard excess batter if that’s easier). I don’t prefer the cosmetic look of muffin liners.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer), add the butter, sugars, and cream together on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the eggs, sour cream, buttermilk, vanilla, and beat on medium high speed until combined, about 2 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, optional salt, and beat until just combined, about 1 minute; don’t overmix or muffins with be tough.
- Add the white chocolate chips and beat on low speed to incorporate, about 30 seconds.
- Add 1 1/4 cups cranberries and fold in by hand with a spatula.
- Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or spoon, turn batter out into prepared pans. Each muffin cavity should be filled nearly full. Turn remaining batter out into mini loaf pan or second muffin pan.
- Add 2 or 3 cranberries to the top of each muffin and to the top of mini loaf.
- Bake at 425F for 5 minutes.
- Without opening oven door, turn oven temp down to 350F and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes (total in-oven baking time is about 23 to 25 minutes), or until muffins are set, domed, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter, noting it’s not a perfect test and you may hit juicy cranberries or melted white chocolate chips which shouldn’t be confused with raw batter. Don’t overbake and start watching muffins closely at 20 minutes total because all cranberries, ovens, climates, etc. vary. Mini loaf may take a few minutes longer than muffins to bake depending on quantity of batter.
- Allow muffins to cool in pan on a wire rack for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until they’ve firmed up and are cool enough to handle.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Cranberry Recipes:
Crustless Cranberry Pie —A FAST, super EASY, no-mixer dessert that’s perfect for holiday entertaining!! Somewhere in between pie, cake, and blondies is what you get with this FESTIVE recipe!
Cranberry Oatmeal Bars — Fast, easy, no mixer bars with juicy cranberries and big crumbles!! Perfect for breakfast, snacks, or dessert! Soft, chewy, hearty, and so good!!
Cranberry Orange Bread — The fresh cranberries in this cranberry orange bread contrast nicely with the sweet orange glaze, making it the perfect blend of sweet and tart!
Cranberry Bliss Bars {Starbucks Copycat Recipe} – They taste just like the real thing and you can make them at home, year-round!
Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies – Cranberry Bliss Bar flavors, in cookie form. Tender, soft, pillowy centers and a personal favorite!
Chocolate Chip Cranberry Bars — Super soft, buttery bars packed with chewy cranberries! And there’s a chocolate overload in every bite!!
Cranberry Seven Layer Bars — If you need a holiday dessert that’s virtually effortless but that tastes like a million bucks, this is the one.
I did a google search and found you there. These are absolutely the best muffins I’ve ever tasted, just perfectly sweet and tart. Thank you for your recipe. It will be used a lot
Thanks so much and I’m glad you really love the muffins!
How would the temperature/time change if I were to use a mini muffin pan?
I’m planning on making these for a breakfast pot luck, and I wanted to have them smaller
I would not change the baking temperature, just shorten the time as necessary.
Made these muffin this week after several gals I exercise with commented on how good some muffins that they had were. They said that it was cranberry white chocolate, so I found your recipe on the internet and made them.. My husband was crazy about them so I made a second batch and froze them. I took some to work and they thought they had cherries in them. This is a keep recipe and I’m sure my kids will also enjoy them at Christmas. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad it’s a keeper!
these look so delish! can I substitute whole plain yogurt for the sour cream/greek yogurt?
I wouldn’t because it’s much thinner and the batter will be thinner and you may have to then adjust the dry ingredients, which I haven’t played around with, so can’t advise you on that.
i have to give it to ya. you’re hands down the best baker ive seen since blogging!!!!
You’re way too kind :) Thank you! xoxoxo
I was wondering if you knew what the baking directions would be for mini muffins rather than med/large ones?
Usually mini muffins are done in 10 mins or less, depending on the pan. I’ve had some done in as little as 6-7 mins before, but I haven’t personally experimented with this recipe as mini muffins.