Cranberry Orange Muffins

Just like from your local bakery, but without all the sugar and nasty oils!


Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups flour (white, wheat, spelt, or combination)


• 1/3 cup organic cane sugar


• 1 Tbsp baking powder


• 1 tsp baking soda


• 3/4 tsp xanthan gum


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1/4 - 1/3 cup walnut pieces


• grated rind of 1 orange


• optional: choc. chips if you've got a hankerin'

Wet Ingredients

• 1/4 cups juice (pretty much any juice will do)


• 1 cup firmly packed dried cranberries


• 1 Tbsp organic cane sugar


• 2 tsp vanilla extract


• juice of 1 orange - the one you grated would be perfect! (this is optional - sometimes I squeeze it and then end up drinking it instead)
• 1/4 cup light oil (like sunflower)

Method

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

Pour the 1 1/4 cups juice, dried cranberries and 2 Tbsp sugar into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer on low for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients.

Remove saucepan from heat, add the oil, juice from the orange you grated and the 2 tsp vanilla extract. Pour over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. If mixture is too stiff and thick, add a little bit more juice.

Transfer to muffin cups and bake 25 minutes.

Recipe by: Trudel; July 2008