It’s no secret around here that I’m an absolute Greek yogurt addict. I ate it for breakfast with homemade granola for probably two years straight. I love making salad dressings with it. It’s always present in my smoothies. And to top it all off- I love using it in baked goods. I find muffins and quick breads to be really good candidates when using Greek yogurt instead of oil or butter. So when Chobani offered to send me a variety of their yogurts, I knew I wanted to put it towards a holiday baked good perfect for Christmas morning. I also had a hankering to work in cranberries, since that’s something people always seem to have an abundance of this time of year. I took raw cranberries and roasted them to prep them for the muffins- but you could always use homemade cranberry sauce you already have on hand. I finished off the flavor profile with some winter citrus in the form of fresh clementine juice and Chobani’s pineapple yogurt. I have to admit, I’m pretty proud of these little guys- they turned out even better than I imagined! They’re the perfect holiday bite, whether you’re serving them for breakfast or brunch, or enjoying them as an afternoon snack alongside some hot mulled cider.
Hope your week is off to a great start!
Roasted Cranberry and Winter Citrus Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
For the muffins:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 4 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 cup Chobani Pineapple yogurt
- juice from half a clementine
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the roasted cranberries:
- 1 1/2 cups raw cranberries
- 2 tsp sugar
- juice from the other half of the clementine
Roast the cranberries: Preheat the oven to 450°. In a small baking dish toss together the cranberries, clementine juice, and sugar. Roast for 15 minutes, or until the cranberries have burst and browned a bit. Set aside to cool. Lower oven to 375°.
In a medium size bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs and vanilla. Stream in the melted butter slowly, whisking as you pour so the butter doesn’t harden. Then beat in the milk, clementine juice, and yogurt.
Scrape the cooled cranberries on a cutting board. Give them a rough chop. Then sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture over the cranberries, and mix together a bit on the cutting board. You want the berries coated so they don’t sink to the bottom of the muffins. Scrape the berry mixture off the board into the wet ingredients, and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk until just combined.
Grease a muffin tin with unsalted butter. Divide the batter between the 12 cups, and bake for 18-20 minutes until the tops of the muffins are golden brown. Serve immediately, or store on the fridge for up to 3 days.
Disclaimer: Chobani graciously supplied the yogurt for this post. I’m a big lover of their products, thus all words are my own.
Good Morning Clara! This recipe looks amazing. I am going to assume you add the FIRST half of the clementine juice in with the dry ingredients, once they are mixed? Poor Clementine was omitted from the recipe until you got to the end about adding half of her juice to the roasted cranberries. I am sure she is a forgiving Clementine though, and holds no ill will! Thank you for another different and totally mind blowing recipe to try over Christmas!
Oh thank you, Cynthia! Just made that update
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Impressively ‘speedy’ correction! I am sure that most of your followers would figure it out . . . but why risk discouraging and confusing the newbies . .. we were ALL newbies once!
Being of Cuban descent on my maternal grandmother’s side, I may try the muffins with persimmons and fresh lemon juice instead of clementine juice (to balance the sweetness of the persimmons!) Will let you know how they do (or don’t) come out. I just know that the cranberry/clementine mix will be the absolute best, but the science nerd in me begs for experimentation occasionally!
This looks amazing. I’m a huge Greek fan, too.
this is a must do recipe for us. btw, chobani is Jim’s favorite brand of yogurt and they sell it at Costco now too so we are set! T hank you and Merry Christmas!!!
We in the Heartland are so jealous ;^) when we hear of all the wonderful ingredients and products that you lucky chefs can obtain in the larger urban areas. We can get Oikos (sp?) Greek yogurt. I hope it is close to being as good as Chobani? Let me know how your muffins turned out, Linda! I couldn’t even find hazelnuts in Joplin in order to make Ina Garten’s wonderful hazelnut/Frangelica truffles!
P.S. We don’t even have a Costco . . . how needy and pathetic is that? lol
It’s a great idea to do pineapple with cranberries! I wouldn’t have thought of it, so I’m glad you did!
So happy to catch this lovely recipe on Chobani’s twitter feed, they sound wonderful! I love the idea of roasting the cranberries, and using the pineapple CHO! Beautiful, Take care, Terra