Each week, opening my weekly organic produce box is like Christmas. I bound up the three flights of stairs to my kitchen taking the steps two by two in order to flip open the box flaps and peer inside. Right on top of the goodies this week was a box of bright red, beautiful cranberries! Because it seems a bit early for cranberry relish and because I can’t STOP BAKING, I made my first ever Cranberry Orange Muffins. They were the best hot out of the oven with oozy, fragrant, tart cranberry pockets.

The delight of these fresh muffins repaired a broken bridge between cranberries and me. Have you walked past The Body Shop in the fall? A few years ago, they introduced a cranberry scent and had it heating in essential oils, burning in candles and perfuming lotions. It was so all encompassing it was completely offensive to my olfactory sensibilities. I hate to say that I actually become prejudice towards poor old fresh cranberries for awhile due to this sniff trauma.

Thank you organic produce box for reminding me why fresh cranberries are so special! I still have half a box of cranberries left. Anyone else have yummy cranberry recipe ideas?

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffin cups or line with paper liners. Combine flour, baking powder, baking sode and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk together cooled melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, orange and buttermilk in a separate mixing bowl. With a wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in cranberries. Fill each muffin cup about three-quarters full. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean (20-24 minutes). Let the pan sit for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Breads & Breakfast, Buttermilk Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.