Christmas Muffins - Cranberries & Orange

If I were to design a muffin called Christmas, this will be it...because Cranberries = Christmas! Am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #2: Christmas! (Dec 2010).

This muffin recipe is really easy, made in the festive spirit of healthy living. When I attended the cooking demo by Chef Anna Olson and she said you can basically substitute up to half of flour of whatever recipes we have with whole wheat flour without drastically affecting the texture and taste of the baked goods. That explains why we often see 1 cup flour : 1 cup whole wheat flour in supposedly health conscious recipes.

Muffins are great! In the spirit of being health conscious (since this is a whole wheat muffin), I use low fat milk instead of full cream. Despite that, the muffin remains moist and tender. The orange gives the muffin a refreshing zesty twist accompanied by tarty cranberries' tanginess, it's like eating Marks and Spencer's Cranberry Orange cookie but in a muffin form. This is a fairy tale of tart meeting sweetness, with a satisfying burping happily ever after.

Cranberry Orange Muffins

(makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:
1 egg
70ml vegetable oil
240ml milk
200g sugar
1 orange's zest
1 tsp of Grand Marnier
140g all purpose flour
150g whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
70g dried cranberries (I used 35g, that's all that I'm left with :P)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 12 muffin paper cups on the muffin tray.
2. Whisk together egg, oil, milk, sugar and orange zest
3. In a separate bowl, sift flours, baking powder, salt and stir in egg mixture
4. Fold in cranberries and scoop batter into muffin
5. Bake for 30mins and transfer to wire rack to cool