Paleo Cranberry Orange Muffins

Ready for a tangy taste of fall? Whip up these super-easy paleo orange cranberry muffins. They’re the perfect tease for your taste buds to get you in the mood for the upcoming holidays…

Gotta say I love cranberries. Their rich color and tart taste are incredible. Serve just about anything with cranberries in it – like a cake, sauce or drink – and I’ll be first in line to try it!

In my pre-paleo days, one of my favorite “recipes” was to add frozen cranberries to a box of instant cranberry/orange cake mix. Those shrunken little dehydrated nubs that came with the mix just didn’t do it for me – I wanted that crisp, juicy cranberry taste you can only get with the real thing. So, lame as it may sound, I doctored-up the off-the-shelf version and it always turned out pretty good.

In fact, that was my inspiration for this recipe…but instead of buying a package of cranberry-orange cake mix, this super-easy recipe lets you quickly whip together everything from scratch using all-natural ingredients. And of course, there’s no gluten or refined sugars in this paleo recipe!

I must admit, making a cranberry-orange paleo muffin mix wasn’t as easy as I first thought it would be. Balancing the orange and cranberry flavors was kind of tricky. But for my taste, the final version of this recipe turned out just right. You may want to add more or less of the orange zest depending on your personal taste. And if you like a little crunch with your muffins, toss some chopped pecans into the batter before baking.

These are wonderful hot out of the oven – light and fluffy with a taste that’s much more sassy than sweet. They make great breakfast muffins or an anytime snack. I like the mini-versions myself, but you can bake these cupcake-size or grab a bread pan for a full-size cranberry-orange cake if you like.

I hope you give these a try. They never fail to get me in a festive holiday mood – now I can’t wait for the turkey and cranberry sauce!

Enjoy!

 

Paleo Cranberry Orange Muffins Recipe

by Trina
A tangy taste of fall, these paleo and gluten-free muffins are moist, not-too-sweet, and made with real cranberries for an extra zing!

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 cups almond flour
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour + 2 tbsp more
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 eggs, whisked
  • 1/3 cup raw honey
  • 6 tbsp coconut oil melted
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup frozen cranberries, unsweetened
  • 1/2 cup juice from an orange we used naval oranges
  • zest from 1-2 oranges
  • Optional: 1/2 cup of pecans

Instructions
 

  • Pre-heat oven to 350º F
  • Zest your orange(s) with a grater
  • Combine in a bowl all the dry ingredients above (the flours, baking soda and salt)
  • In another bowl, combine all the wet ingredients excluding the cranberries together (eggs, honey, orange juice, coconut oil, vanilla, zest)
  • Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
  • Now gently fold in the cranberries and (optional) add the pecans
  • Pour into cupcake liners (we created 24 mini muffins and 4 regular-sized muffins with this recipe
  • Cooking times: For mini muffins, approx. 18-20 mins; Regular-size muffins, about 25-30 mins
  • Cooking times may vary – test by inserting a toothpick – if it comes out clean, the muffins are done
  • Muffins can be stored in the refrigerator for several days, or freeze your extra muffins for thawing and serving later

Join the Conversation

  1. Hi Trina, I just want to thank you for your wonderful recipes. When I want a muffin recipe, I always turn to your recipes and they are always GOOD! Thank you so much!

    1. Thank you so much Belle!

  2. Hey ya,I tried baking for the first time and decided to go with your recipe. It is amazing! But I like mine moist so I use 2 tbsp coconut oil + 3 tbsp greek yogurt. I cut my sugar too so I used 1/4 rice malt syrup turn out great! Thanks for sharing!!

    1. Glad you enjoyed Connie!

  3. Do you think you could use Cashew meal & coconut flour?

    1. Possibly, but I haven’t tried it, so not sure.

  4. I subbed almond flour for a mix of Jules All Purpose GF and Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF (as I ran out of Jules!). Used local honey that isn’t raw, and subbed pecans for walnuts. These are very good! I am writing a blog about it now and of course linking to you. Thanks so much!

    1. Glad subbing with all purpose gluten-free flour worked out for you Kate! Thanks so much for your helpful comment and trying the recipe…looking forward to your post :)

  5. Oh so yummy! I conserve my almond and coconut flours because they are expensive and I am a broke college student haha. But this recipe was well worth it. The muffins are light and airy, nutty and sweet. My family loves them. I made 24 mini muffins and 2 small loaves. I only had dried cranberries so I soaked them in boiling water for a few minutes and they came out perfectly moist. I subbed 3 T applesauce for 3 T of the coconut oil. Couldn’t even tell! I subbed pure maple syrup for the honey and I threw in plenty of chopped pecans.
    Thank you so much for this recipe! Have a great day.

    1. Oh I love the college students! I have a couple of boys that have just graduated and you sound just like them! :) I’m so happy you deemed our muffins worthy of your precious flours. I agree, they can be a bit pricey! Thank you so much letting me know you like the recipe. :)

  6. Just finished eating two of these delicious muffins. Great texture and just sweet enough. I actually tossed half of an overripe banana in with the wet ingredients so I reduced the maple syrup by half. Good recipe…thanks!

    1. Sarah, so glad you enjoyed my recipe! And great thinking with the banana! I’m gonna try that myself! :)

  7. Can you use pure honey instead of raw honey?

  8. My hubby and my 22 month old toddler loves this. I’ve made these twice and it has been a good breakfast muffin too! The first batch i used shredded coconut as I didn’t have any coconut flour. It turned out moist and with a bit more coconutty taste.

    1. Zetty, that sounds awesome! These muffins are one of my favorites too. The added coconut is a great touch! I’ll try that next time! :)

  9. Has anyone tried this recipe with fresh cranberries?

    1. Yes!! I have and they are delicious!!!! I used a little more than what the recipe called for in Cranberries since they were fresh – TRY IT!! You will love it!!

  10. These are delicious! The combination of almond with just enough coconut flour allows for a golden color that is hard to get in gluten-free baking. These are my current middle-of-the-night pregnant lady snack. There’s enough awesome fat and protein in them that half a muffin in the wee hours satisfies me AND the baby! Thanks, Trina. I’m so glad that I foundy your site!

    1. Arya, thank you! How cool is it for me to get a nice comment from a mom and baby! I really appreciate your kind words. I work hard to try to make the best recipes I can. Knowing people like you enjoy them makes it all worth it! :)

  11. I took these out of the oven about 15 minutes ago and I’ve already had two. They turned out so, so good! And this was my first foray into baking with almond and coconut flour, so I’m really happy. The only thing I did differently was use a bit of Baking Powder because I didn’t have baking soda, and I used both lime and orange zest.

    1. That’s great! I’m glad they turned out well for you! They are such a great fall muffin! And as you can see, you can make awesome recipes without the refined sugars and flours. Good for you! :) thank you for the nice comment!

  12. Do you know if these would freeze well? Love to make ahead of time for people to grab on Thanksgiving morning!

    1. Hi Karen! Yes they will! I have some in the freezer right now! If you have thanksgiving on your mind, watch for our paleo pumpkin pie bar recipe I’m posting this week! I made them yesterday and I’m pretty sure it’s a recipe even non paleo peeps will love! :)

  13. Do you think I can replace the almond flour for something like more coconut flour or tapioca flour?

    1. Hi Deb! I’m sure it could be made with coconut flour, but I wouldn’t would be able to tell you the quantities. Coconut flour is much different that almond flour. It has a nice consistency for baking, but absorbs much more liquid and requires less flour. Same with tapioca.

  14. They are awesome! A little tart, but so good! My hubby ate all the mini muffins ( ok, I had a few) . They are little addicting morsels of yum! :)

  15. Thank you for this…My family and I are getting tired of banana muffins!

  16. I have a huge bag of fresh cranberries- would they work just the same as frozen, or should I cook them before adding them? Thanks! I love your recipes! :)

    1. Hi AnnMarie! Good question. I didn’t have fresh, so just used what I had on hand. So I’m not sure. I imagine they would work fine. If you try it let me know how it goes. :)

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