Cranberry time! Lots of fresh cranberries in the shops available now (tip: freeze some so you have them available later as well).  We have plenty of walnuts from a walnut tree in our garden, so I like adding chopped walnuts to baking goods. I wish I could say the cranberries are also home grown, but unfortunately our cranberries only produced a handfull of small berries.

cranberries, orange and walnuts

Ingredients cranberry orange muffins (vegan)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flower
• 1 1/4 ts baking powder
• 1 ts baking soda
• 1/2 ts salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 ts orange zest
• 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 ts vanille extract
• 1 1/4 cup chopped cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• some sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 190° (375°).
Slightly grease the holes of a muffin tin (12 muffins) with some canola oil.

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In another bowl, mix the ‘wet’ ingredients: sugar, zest, orange juice, oil and vanilla extract.
Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Fold in the chopped walnuts and cranberries.
Divide the batter equally over the holes of the mufffin tin. Sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top of each pile of batter.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (untill tops are golden brown and inserted toothpick comes out clean).
Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.

The recipe is based on one I found in the baking book 150 Best Vegan Muffin Recipes, by Camilla V. Saulsbury. It’s a pretty straightforward baking book, and although this is the first recipe I’m making from this book, I’m sure plenty will follow!

Bruges Cookie tin

I got this nice cookie tin with scenes from Bruges (the swans, the canals and the Belfry) from my mother in law. Perfect for storing muffins or other baked goodies! It can only contain 9-10 muffins, but by the time I store them for the next day, we have already eaten some muffins anyway 😉
I am not a experienced photographer and my photos are generally very basic, but I did experiment a bit with these. There’s room for improvement, I know, but I was already happy with these 😉

Cranberry orange muffins, and Bruges souvenir cookie tin