Cranberry pomegranate muffins

Not too long ago, I came home to find a surprise package on my doorstep. A box of cranberry pomegranate juice. Apparently it is a new product from POM and it's not even yet available for purchase.

I liked the juice as I like all the POM juice varieties. Normally I'm not a big fan of cranberry juice, but blended with the pomegranate, I didn't taste the aftertaste that I don't like with cranberry juice. Also for those who find pomegranate juice on its own too tart, the cranberry juice dilutes it so it's not so tart.

After drinking some of the juice, I decided to bake with it. Of course when thinking of cranberries my mind immediately popped to cranberry muffins or cranberry bread. It's not quite the season for fresh cranberries yet, so I decided to make a recipe with dried cranberries. It's also not the season yet for fresh pomegranates, so I didn't have any of those around to put in my muffins.

When it is the season, I'll definitely be adding some pomegranate seeds and fresh cranberries to give these babies some more color. I also might try an eggless version next time. Once I poured the cranberry juice in, it was initially red, but then the batter turned a brown color after mixing with the egg yolks.

While these didn't come out as beautifully as I wanted, they tasted quite delicious. Sweet, slightly tangy from the pomegranate cranberry juice. It's usually hard to convince my siblings to eat the fruit flavored desserts, but they liked these muffins. They're also very soft and moist.

I browsed the internet for cranberry orange muffin recipes, so that I could replace orange juice with cranberry pomegranate juice. I chose a recipe from Good Food, Good Wine and a Bad Girl and made some modifications to fit what I was attempting to make.

A lot of times when I try to come up with my own recipes or alter previous recipes to create my own they end up coming out a complete disaster. I still am a novice when it comes to baking. But these, to my relief, came out delicious. I just wish I had some fresh cranberries and pomegranate seeds to put in the batter.

Cranberry pomegranate muffins (adapted from this recipe base)

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2/3 cup cranberry pomegranate juice
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly butter a 12-cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. In a separate bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat until smooth. Stir in the  juice, milk and vanilla extract. Add in the dry ingredients, along with the dried cranberries, and stir until just barely combined.

3. Distribute batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until tops are puffed and golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

 

Comments

[tigerfish]

I thought the cranberries would make it tart as well? Cos I have tried cranberry juice and it is tart! :O ...but I am ok with them being tart...just that my other half don't. Your muffins look beautiful, including the basket :)