Cranuffins
As a young lad maybe six years of age, I wanted to “help” my mother in the kitchen. She was cooking and baking for a holiday meal. I had no interest in cranberry sauce, but thought maybe those cranberries would be yummy in some muffins. Being a kid, I also wanted to add sugar, chocolate, and other decadent stuff.
We looked up two or three muffin recipes from Mom's trusty Betty Crocker cookbook, and adapted from their commonalities.
Mom largely let me have my way, and braced herself for the worst. To our shock, the muffins turned out nicely!
We did our best then, to recollect what we had done. Wrote things down on a 3x5" index card, and that heirloom has been in our family ever since. But I confess, I've made some modifications here, and all for the better.
Some of the measures are unorthodox, but with copious photos you won't have any trouble following along.
From our family to yours,
Here's the Recipe.
Here's a glance at the ingredients we use. Feel free to substitute your favorite brands, like Diamond for sugar. "Great Value" is a nearly generic Walmart brand I'll neither promote nor disdain.
The first thing I always throw into the bowl, is flour. King Arthur does well for me, and I enjoy the texture of their unbleached bread flour. I measure 2 heaped coffee mugs. This is about 3 cups.
Dark Brown Sugar is next. It comes in a 1-lb bag, or a 2-lb bag. So I use a pound, to keep things simple. Again this is roughly 3 cups. If you don't have Dark Brown Sugar, just add extra Molasses to compensate.
Next we add 2 heaping tablespoons of Cinnamon, another 1 heaped tablespoon of Cocoa Powder, and a little over 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder.
Those are all the dry ingredients. I like to smash the clumps, before adding wet ingredients.
I use my mug again, to measure. After 3 raw Eggs, I top off the mug with Milk — probably about 1 cup, varying as the eggs will vary in size.
Beat eggs & milk together with a fork.
I rinse the mug and use it to microwave a 1/2 stick of Butter.
I fold the milk & eggs beneath the dry ingredients, so they won't chill the melted butter as I add it.
Then I stir everything together by hand. Work it until smooth.
If you decide to use a mixer, go with low speed.
These are my favorite mixers. =)
Drizzle Molasses on top, about 1/4 cup or so, and then stir again.
Optionally, this is a great time to add a dose of rum. Or vanilla extract. Or zest of orange. Or chocolate bitters. Lots of fun variations are possible.
Add two 12-oz bags of cranberries. Sort out any discolored, squishy, or otherwise unappealing ones.
Use a flexible spoon or spatula to avoid bruising the fruit as you fold the cranberries into the muffin batter.
Use an oiled or buttered muffin tin, without cupcake wrappers. These muffins are super sticky, impossible to separate from paper or foil. They may be extracted from the oiled tin with a blunt table knife.
There's enough batter for about 18 muffins, not quite a double batch.
Bake at 400° for about 25 minutes. Larger muffins or small loaves can take up to 40 minutes.
Muffins are done when berries have exploded on top, and their juices darkened.
Extract with care, and...
