Packed with juicy cranberries and baked with a buttery oatmeal streusel on top, these cranberry oatmeal muffins are a holiday breakfast favorite!
Introducing this holiday season’s muffin! The most perfect addition to any Christmas brunch and every event in between.
We’ve got cranberries, we’ve got tons of streusel, and no shortage of creamy orange glaze filling in all the cracks.
It’s quite honestly all the best holiday things wrapped into one muffin, y’all.
I’m sharing all my tried and true tips for getting those perfect domed bakery style muffins and even novice bakers will be able to nail these with ease!
Just be warned, a batch of these muffins goes and it goes FAST.
These Cranberry Muffins feature…
- A soft and fluffy texture
- Fragrant orange zest and tangy fresh cranberries
- Tender oats in both the batter and the buttery streusel
- A sweet and creamy orange glaze
Making the Muffins
(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)
Ingredients You Will Need
- Old-fashioned rolled oats
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Honey
- Eggs
- Applesauce
- Vanilla extract
- Orange zest
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Kosher salt
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- 2% or skim milk
- Cranberries
- Brown sugar
- Powdered sugar
Quick Bread Version
These muffins can easily be converted to a quick bread version. Assemble the batter and streusel and scrape into a greased or parchment paper-lined 9×5 loaf pan. Bake bread at 350F 55-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Allow bread to cool completely before topping with glaze.
Tips for Perfect Muffins
- Toast oats on stovetop then pulse in food processor – this gives the oats a lovely toasted flavor and breaks them down into the perfect texture for the muffin batter.
- Cream softened butter with sugar and honey – this builds the fat base to the muffin batter.
- Measure flour correctly – we use the spoon-and-level technique for measuring flour as this will prevent over-measuring your flour. Use a spoon to scoop flour into the measuring cup, then level with the back of a knife.
- Bring eggs, applesauce, and milk to room temperature – this will help these ingredients mix more cohesively into the butter.
- Fill muffin cups to brim with batter – this makes for tall bakery-style muffins.
- Bake muffins at 425F 5 minutes then reduce heat to 375F – this short blast of heat at the beginning also helps the muffins rise nice and tall.
Recipe Variations
Try these ideas for a different twist on these muffins.
- Use a different fruit – try blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or diced strawberries.
- Add chocolate – try adding 1/2 cup white chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips.
- Add nuts – fold 1/2 cup chopped and toasted walnuts or pecans into the batter.
Storing and Freezing Muffins
Allow muffins to cool completely, then store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days. For best results, I recommend not reheating muffins for serving otherwise the glaze will melt off.
To freeze muffins, do not top with glaze. Allow to cool completely, then store in a freezer-safe container and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw muffins completely at room temperature, top with glaze, and store up to 4 days.
Every bite of one of these muffins is like biting into pure Christmas! The oats give the muffins a hearty texture with fragrant orange and juicy cranberries in every bite.
Holiday muffins are in the house, y’all!
Save this recipe using the ‘save to recipe box’ button below. If you make it, please let us know! Leave a comment + star rating below, or take a photo and tag it on Instagram with #wholeandheavenlyoven.
Try these other delicious muffins next!
Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins
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Ingredients
Muffins
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 cup 2% or skim milk, room temperature
- 1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
Streusel
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Glaze
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons 2% or skim milk
Instructions
Muffins
- Preheat oven to 425F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with muffin liners and set aside.
- Place oats in a medium nonstick pan and set over medium heat. Stir oats around 4-6 minutes until fragrant and a light golden brown. Pulse oats in a food processor several times until finely chopped or finely chop with a knife. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and honey together until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs, applesauce, vanilla extract, and orange zest until smooth.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine flour, toasted oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add flour in 1/3 increments with milk to butter mixture, folding batter until just combined. Fold in cranberries. Fill muffin cups to brim with batter and set aside for a moment.
Streusel
- In a small bowl, combine all streusel ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over muffin batter, pressing lightly to adhere crumbs. Top with additional cranberries if desired.
- Bake muffins at 425F 5 minutes, then reduce heat to 375F and continue baking an additional 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.
- Cool muffins 20 minutes in pan, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Glaze
- In a small bowl, combine all glaze ingredients, adding just enough milk to make glaze drizzling consistency.
- Drizzle glaze over cooled muffins and allow to set 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
This post was updated with new recipe tips and photos on 10/18/24.
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