Cranberry-Apple-Orange Muffins

After making the traditional Phillips Family Cranberry Salad (see bottom of post for recipe) for Thanksgiving, I had leftover cranberries. I asked for recipe recommendations on Facebook, and received several suggestions. One of the problems I was running into was that many things call for dried cranberries, and I had fresh. My friend Mary Kathryn (a SUPERB cook) came through with a recipe that I altered a little and made this morning. I am not going to post the original one, I will just tell you to check out this Ina Garten recipe :-)

Here's what I did:

Cranberries (probably half a bag, but I didn't measure them), chopped up in my mini chopper
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped in my mini chopper
1/2 cup light brown sugar
orange zest (I zested a large navel orange, prob 1-2 Tbsp)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (I juiced 1/2 of the large orange)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

After chopping cranberries and apple, place in a bowl. Put brown sugar and orange zest in a separate bowl and rub together so the sugar is flavored with the orange zest (read this tip on Brown Eyed Baker and it was something fun for the kids to do). Add brown sugar and cinnamon to the fruit and stir  together.

Beat eggs with mixer for a couple of minutes until foamy and fluffy; add white sugar, butter and vanilla and mix well. Add in flour, salt and yogurt and mix until combined. Pour off most of the juices from the fruit and stir into the batter. Line muffin tin with foil liners and fill with batter to the top of the liner (these do not rise, so do not worry about overfilling). Bake at 325 for approx. 20-25 minutes, or until edges are lightly gold and tops are set. Allow to cool and enjoy!

*Note: you can probably bake these at a higher temperature, but I just used what the original recipe called for. Also, though these seem a little more involved than 'normal' muffins (i.e. stir together in one pan), they came together quickly and have a wonderful flavor.