In the world of weight loss and dieting, the word muffin has long been a four-letter word. Basically, muffin equals cake. Cake dressed up in a disguise to look like breakfast.
I’ve had a bag of unsweetened, dried cranberries hanging around my pantry for a few weeks now and decided they needed to make their way into muffins. As I searched the far reaches of my favorite cookbook—the internet—I discovered a million recipes chock full of white flour and cups (!) of sugar.
Call me crazy, but I’d like to believe the natural sweetness of the cranberries and oranges could mostly stand on its own in a breakfast muffin. Eating a ton of refined sugar for breakfast is fun and all, but it also is the precursor to a nasty 11am sugar crash. Which is fine on the weekends. Not so fine if you want to consume something before your huge work presentation. These muffins keep you full and focused.
And white flour? To start your day off right you need your flour to be bigger, better, strong, whole-wheatier. No need for real flour’s sad, bleached and processed relative to steal the spotlight.
So I went rogue. I created a muffin that is dense, rich, lightly-sweet and fulfilling enough to actually make for a good breakfast (or snack). Now that’s my kind of non-cake muffin.
Of note, we stashed these in the freezer in a zip-top bag. Before we head out the door in the morning, we wrap one in a paper towel, microwave for 30 seconds, smear on a pat of butter and go! Doesn’t get much quicker than that.
Cranberry Orange Whole Wheat Muffins
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 2 cups hot water
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tbsp. orange zest…
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