Gluten-Free Glazed Cranberry Orange Muffins

When fresh cranberries are in season you just have to make glazed cranberry orange muffins! We use Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour gluten-free flour (bean blend), guar gum, Cointreau, orange zest, raw cane sugar, and European goat butter then glaze with powdered sugar and freshly squeezed orange juice.

love healthy gluten-free muffins

I am SO super excited about how this recipe turned out! These gluten-free glazed cranberry orange muffins are SOOOO GOOD!

So I have a few go-to clean eating healthy muffin recipes that we make all the time with a few different ingredients that change by the seasons. One of my favorite flour blends is using ancient grains like millet and sorghum to make Sorghum Millet Banana Muffins or Spiced Sorghum Millet Zucchini Muffins.

I also love using Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free flour blend (bean blend with no xanthan gum added) to make a great all-purpose muffin batter. We use it to make the best gluten-free Blueberry Muffins. I’ve substituted strawberries and also made an upside down pineapple cake with it, too.

So I thought the batter might work really well to make cranberry orange muffins. And oh, it did! Brett even said that they were the only cranberry muffins he’s ever really liked so I’ll take that as a win!

making the cranberry orange muffins

First, I washed the cranberries in water and picked out the bad ones that were showing signs of spoilage or slime. Because we are going to use the orange zest, I like to wash the orange with baking soda and water first to get rid of any dirt, wax or whatever on the skin.

Next I thought it might be better to chop the cranberries because they were pretty big. And it might be easier to make muffins with cranberry pieces. So I washed them again to get rid of some of the seeds and slimy skins that were left. And then placed them in a strainer to drain off the water.

In the original recipe and in other versions, I used ghee (or coconut oil) as the fat. But now that I am comfortable with goat milk, we have lots of goat butter on hand. So I decided I would try some of the European goat butter for this recipe. It is so delicious.

But you can use really any kind of fat or butter substitute. This recipe is very versatile.

The other thing I changed from the original muffin recipe was using the orange liqueur Cointreau instead of vanilla extract. And we added in orange zest.

glazing the muffins

I baked the muffins in paper liners because it is just easier to clean up after. Then I let them cool before removing the papers and adding the orange glaze.

I like to use clean, fair-trade organic sugar from Wholesome Sweet. I use raw cane sugar in the muffins. And the glaze is just organic powdered sugar and freshly squeezed orange juice from the orange we used for its zest.

I think the best part of these muffins is the glaze. It soaks into the cracks and crevices and just takes them to another level of deliciousness. But if you don’t want the extra sugar, I’m sure they are still really awesome.

Make sure to put some parchment paper down under the rack when you glaze them because it is pretty runny and will drip down. If you want a thicker glaze add less orange juice.

Any way, hope you get a chance to try out this recipe! Yum. Yum.

want more sweet treats like these gluten-free glazed cranberry orange muffins?

• brown sugar chocolate chip cookies
• kinda buttermilk pie
• pecan pie and pecan pie mini tarts
• orange marmalade cookies
• chocolate zucchini muffins
• oat flour carrot cake muffins
• sweet potato chocolate brownies
• lemon ricotta cookies
• puff pastry beignets
• sorghum millet apricot raspberry muffins

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Gluten-Free Glazed Cranberry Orange Muffins

When cranberries are in season you just have to make these delicious gluten-free glazed cranberry orange muffins made with European goat butter!

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword muffins, orange glazed cranberry muffins

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 12 muffins

Author Deana Larkin Evans

Ingredients

• 2 cups GF all-purpose baking flour no xanthan gum
• 2 tsp guar gum
• 2 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp pink Himalayan salt
• 1/2 cup European goat butter or coconut oil or ghee, melted but not hot
• 1 cup raw organic cane sugar plus more for sprinkling
• 2 extra large eggs
• 1 tbsp Cointreau orange liqueur
• 3/4 cup filtered water
• 2 cups fresh chopped cranberries
• Zest from one large orange

Orange glaze

• 1 cup organic confectioners sugar
• 3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

2. Wash whole cranberries in water and pick out any bad ones to discard. Roughly chop the cranberries on a cutting board. Then rinse again and strain to remove water.

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: gluten-free all puopose flour, baking powder, guar gum, cinnamon, and salt. Add the European goat butter (or ghee, butter substitute, or coconut oil), sugar, eggs, Cointreau and water. Use a fork or mixer to combine all the ingredients so that they are well-combined.

4. Add the orange zest and fold in the cranberries. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into each muffin cup.

5. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Let cool on a cooling rack.

6. Add the confectioners sugar to a measuring glass. Use the orange you zested for freshly squeezed orange juice. Add to the powdered sugar and whisk until well-blended. When the muffins cool a bit remove the paper liners and place on a rack over parchment paper. Drizzle with the orange glaze.