Eggnog Cranberry Orange Muffins

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These eggnog cranberry orange muffins have a crumb topping and a sweet orange glaze. They make the perfect breakfast or snack!

Eggnog Cranberry Orange Muffins - Bake. Eat. Repeat. (1)

These eggnog cranberry orange muffins are absolutely delicious! They are soft and tender, orange flavoured muffins filled with tart cranberries, and topped with a crunchy crumb topping, and a sweet orange glaze.

They’re a little more decadent than your typical homemade muffin, but they are so tasty. If you want a delicious, bakery style muffin to have with your coffee this morning, I highly recommend these ones!

Eggnog Cranberry Orange Muffins - Bake. Eat. Repeat. (2)

That crumb topping is so amazing, and the orange glaze adds an extra burst of orange flavour that makes these muffins so much better.

I do think they’d still be tasty without the crumb topping and the glaze if you’d like to make them a bit healthier, but I can’t say for sure, because I can’t resist adding both!

Eggnog Cranberry Orange Muffins - Bake. Eat. Repeat. (3)

How do you make crumb topping for muffins?

Making a crumb topping for muffins is very easy. It only takes about 30 seconds to mix together the few ingredients needed for it.

This crumb topping uses brown and white sugar, flour, and melted butter. All you need to do is stir everything together until it starts to clump.

As you place the crumb topping mixture on the muffins, simply squeeze it together in your hands to form big clumps to cover the muffins with.

Eggnog Cranberry Orange Muffins - Bake. Eat. Repeat. (4)

Here are some more great recipes that use a crumb topping:

Eggnog Cranberry Orange Muffins - Bake. Eat. Repeat. (5)

Do you have to cook cranberries before baking?

You do not need to cook the cranberries before baking them in these eggnog cranberry orange muffins.

How to make Eggnog Cranberry Orange Muffins:

These muffins are baked at a high temperature for just 5 minutes, before lowering the oven temperature for the rest of the bake time. This helps give them a good rise in the oven.
Press the crumb topping into the muffin batter a little bit when you add it. This will help it to stay on the muffins after baking rather than all falling off as you take them out of the muffin tin.
I have only made these muffins with fresh or frozen cranberries, but I think that dried cranberries would be tasty too if you prefer. They would make the muffins quite sweet though so keep that in mind if you substitute.

Here are some more great muffin recipes for you:

Yield: 12 muffins

These eggnog cranberry orange muffins have a crumb topping and a sweet orange glaze. They make the perfect breakfast or snack!

Ingredients

For the streusel:

3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
pinch salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the muffins:

1 cup fresh cranberries, quartered
1 tablespoon orange zest
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup eggnog
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Lightly spray a 12 cup muffin tin with non-stick spray, or line it with paper liners and set aside.
Make the streusel - in a small bowl, combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, chopped pecans and salt.
Drizzle the melted butter over everything and stir until everything is combined and clumping together. Set aside.
In a small bowl, toss the cranberries and orange zest with the 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, eggs, melted butter and oil until well combined.
Add the eggnog and vanilla and whisk until combined.
Add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
Fold in the cranberries.
Scoop the muffin batter into the prepared muffin tin, dividing it between the 12 muffin cups. They should be almost full.
Top the muffins with streusel, dividing the streusel mixture between the 12 muffin cups.
Bake for 5 minutes, and then lower the oven temperature to 350F, and continue baking for another 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
Allow the muffins to cool for 5-10 minutes in the muffin tin, and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.
In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and orange juice until smooth to make the glaze.
Drizzle the glaze over top of the cooled muffins.

Notes

Note: I think that dried cranberries would work very well in these too if you prefer, although we enjoyed the tartness of the fresh ones. Just omit tossing the cranberries with a tablespoon of sugar if you go that route.

Source: Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Baking Book.