Cranberry Muffins

I decided to buy a thing of cranberries the other day...even though I don't really like them.  They aren't bad...they just aren't my favorite, but they were cheap, and my bananas weren't quite ripe enough for bread making yet, so I figured, what the heck.  So I bought them, then I contemplated what on earth to do with them.  The cranberry sauce was covered for both of the Thanksgivings I was going to and I didn't know what else they were useful for.  Aaron suggested muffins, a genius idea!  So I scoured the Internet looking for  a recipe that didn't require any zests from any citrus fruits and still sounded good.  I found this one over at cooks.com but I made a few modifications, and will modify it again when I make it again...and I will be making this one again!  I hope you enjoy!

Cranberry Muffins


1 Cup cranberries
3/4 Cup sugar
2 Cups flour
4 Teaspoons baking powder
3/4 Teaspoon salt
1 Egg
1 Cup milk
4 Tablespoons melted butter divided
A mixture of Cinnamon and Sugar

Chop up the cranberries (I pulsed them a few times in the food processor) and combine with 1/2 cup sugar.  Set this aside and allow the sugar to do work its magic on the cranberries (about 10 minutes before you start mixing everything else up).

Preheat your oven to 425 F.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar in a large bowl.

Beat the egg slightly and combine it with the milk and 3 tablespoons of the melted butter.  Add milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix until just combined.  Fold in the cranberries.  Transfer batter to a buttered or lined muffin tin and bake about 25 minutes, or until tops are golden.  When muffins come out, brush with remaining 1 tablespoon butter and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture on top.  Enjoy!

The finished product!  Next time I might add another 1/4 cup of sugar to the batter mixture to make it a little sweeter, but the results were still yummy and gone by the following morning.