Vegan Cranberry Orange Muffins Recipe

This vegan cranberry orange muffin recipe is incredibly easy to make. It creates muffins that are packed with the fresh flavor of oranges and tart, rich cranberries. They’re soft, fluffy, tender and perfectly sweetened. No one will know these are dairy free and eggless!

You can also make an optional orange or cranberry glaze for the top. The glaze adds extra flavor and sweetness, taking these muffins to the next level for a sweeter treat.

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Ingredients for Vegan Orange Cranberry Muffins

This recipe uses basic ingredients to create delicious, fresh-tasting muffins. Everything should be easy to find at a typical grocery store, including:

• Ground flaxseed: This is the perfect vegan egg replacement when baking muffins. Ground chia seed can also work (but not whole seeds).
• Orange juice and zest: For tons of fresh orange flavor, you’ll need the zest and juice of about two oranges. While you could use orange juice from a carton, without the zest, this recipe will lack orange flavor.
• Plant-based milk: The muffin batter needs liquid to work, and plant-based milk makes a great choice for tender and rich muffins. I use soy milk, but any type of plant-based milk should work.
• Apple cider vinegar: Some vinegar helps thicken the plant-based milk and works with the baking soda to make fluffy muffins.
• Granulated sugar: For added sweetness, use some granulated sugar. These muffins aren’t overly sweet, and the tart cranberry flavor comes through nicely. I haven’t tested this recipe with sugar substitutes.
• Vegetable oil: For moist, deliciously soft muffins, select a neutral-flavored oil for this recipe (stronger flavored oils like olive oil can work but impact the taste).
• Vanilla extract: Enhance all the other flavors with some vanilla extract.
• All-purpose flour: For tender, soft muffins, use basic all-purpose flour. I haven’t tested this recipe with other types of flour, but you could replace up to half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour if you like.
• Baking powder and soda: For fluffy muffins, you’ll need a combo of baking powder and soda.
• Cranberries: Select fresh or frozen cranberries for this recipe. I use frozen cranberries that I thaw and slice in half.

Orange Glaze (Optional)

• Icing sugar: Also called powdered sugar or confectioners’ sugar, this is the key to making a quick and easy glaze.
• Orange or cranberry juice: A small amount of extra orange juice (or cranberry juice) flavors the glaze and helps to dissolve the sugar.
• Optional orange zest: If you have extra oranges around and want a glaze with tons of orange flavor, add some zest. You could also use cranberry juice (instead of orange juice) plus orange zest for a cranberry-orange glaze!

How to Make Vegan Cranberry Orange Muffins

This recipe is very easy to make with just a few simple steps.

Step 1: Prepare a Flax Egg

Start by zesting two oranges. Use the small grating edge of a box grater or a handheld small grater (microplane). Zest is the bright orange layer of the peel. Don’t grate into the white pith underneath if you can avoid it.

Then, juice the oranges so you have ⅓ cup of orange juice.

Mix the orange juice, orange zest and ground flaxseed together in a small bowl and set aside. This should thicken into a gel texture and is called a flax “egg” as it’s used to replace eggs in vegan baking recipes.

Step 2: Mix Liquid Ingredients

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together plant-based milk and apple cider vinegar. Let this sit for 1-2 minutes.

The milk should thicken and may seem curdled (lumpy); this is perfect consistency for a dairy free buttermilk!

Then, add sugar, oil and vanilla extract. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and everything is well combined.

Add the flaxseed “egg” mixture to the bowl and whisk this through.

Step 3: Add Dry Ingredients

Next, add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the mixing bowl. Stir together until almost combined.

Then add the cranberries. I highly recommend slicing your cranberries in half or quarters (if they’re very large) to get a piece of cranberry in most bites.

When the cranberries are in, finish stirring the batter together until it is just combined. This means to stir until the cranberries are evenly mixed into the batter and there’s no more dry clumps of flour visible.

Don’t over-mix the batter. It will be thick and not a pourable consistency.

Step 4: Bake

Preheat your oven to 350 °F, then prep a 12-slot muffin pan with liners.

Evenly divide the muffin batter into all 12 muffin slots. You’ll need to scrape the bowl with a spatula to get it all out.

Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Once out of the oven, let the muffins cool for a minute or two before carefully removing from the pan and transferring to a wire cooling rack.

You can serve these hot or let them cool completely before glazing and storing them.

Step 5: Optional Glaze

To make the glaze, simply stir together icing sugar with orange juice (or cranberry juice). If adding orange zest, stir this in too.

Make the glaze just before you’re ready to glaze the muffins, otherwise the top layer of glaze will become hard and crusty (you can cover the glaze with plastic wrap if you make it too early).

When the muffins cool fully, dip the top of each muffin into glaze.

Vegan Muffin Variations

Vegan muffins are super easy to make. If you’re a fan of this sweet treat, here are some other recipes you may like:

• Vegan chocolate chip muffins
• Vegan blueberry muffins
• Vegan lemon poppy seed muffins
• Vegan double chocolate zucchini muffins
• Vegan lemon blueberry muffins

How to Refrigerate and Freeze Leftovers

Cool leftover muffins to room temperature before transferring to an airtight container.

You can store them on a countertop for 2-3 days. For longer storage, refrigerate them for up to a week.

You can also freeze these muffins in any freezer safe bag or container for up to 3 months. They can be frozen with glaze on top.

To defrost, let your muffins thaw on your countertop for a few hours or overnight in the fridge. Heat the muffins in a microwave for a few seconds before serving (if desired).

If you make this recipe, please rate and comment below to help others benefit from your experience!

📖 Recipe

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