Lemony Cranberry-Almond Muffins

 

(I concocted this recipe earlier today.)

Ingredients:

½ c. unsalted butter (1 stick)

1 c. unsweetened apple sauce

1 ¾ c. sugar

3 tbsp. honey

3 large free range eggs

1 ½ tbsp. pure lemon extract

1 tbsp. grated orange peel

4 c. flour (I recommend all purpose unbleached flour or whole wheat flour)

1 ½ tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 ¼ c. fresh or dried (Craisins) cranberries

1 ½ c. chopped raw almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

If using dried cranberries, place them in a medium size bowl and add warm water. Let them sit 10 minutes to rehydrate a bit. Then drain and set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda in large bowl. Set aside.

Beat butter, sugar and honey for 3 minutes on medium-high speed. Add eggs and beat until combined. Mix in apple sauce, lemon extract and grated orange peel. Pour in flour mixture, stirring until combined. Add cranberries and chopped almonds.

Bake at 350 degrees in large muffin tin or loaf pans for 20-25 minutes or until done (toothpick inserted comes out clean). Let bread cool for 5 minutes in baking tin before moving to cooling rack.

Once cooled to desired temperature, enjoy!

+++

It’s Wednesday afternoon here in Seattle and I’m baking my second batch of the Lemony Cranberry-Almond muffins I just posted. My oven bakes things much quicker than other ovens I’ve used, so I set the temperature to 350 degrees and this second batch of bread is about done. (Note: if you make this recipe, keep in mind that the average size loaf pan will take longer to bake than muffin tins.) Since I ran out of toothpicks weeks ago, I keep rewashing the same little knife to check the bread. I’m hoping the bread bakes perfectly because I’d like to bring some to a friend’s house tomorrow. She just announced that she’s pregnant with her second child and it’s very exciting. I thought of her today, actually, and how if I was pregnant, I would crave bread. Lots and lots of bread. Moist, sweet bread. With cranberries and almonds in it. Hmm…I hope she appreciates these flavor combinations as much as I hypothetically would in her shoes. The timer’s going off. I better head out now. I’m looking forward to trying this new recipe I made.