This is a recipe I’ve made before with sultanas and I’d thought I’d revisit it with cranberries just because I’m a bit in love with them at the moment. These muffins are not too sweet, are loaded with ruby red fruit and have a beautifully fluffy interior.
Sorry about the complicated measurement conversions – some of the numbers were stubbornly inconvenient!
Makes 18
Ingredients
150g (5 1/3 oz or 1 generous cup) dried cranberries
200g (5/6 of a cup) 100% hydration sourdough starter
150g (halfway between 2/3 and 3/4 of a cup) water
300g (2 1/3 cups) all purpose (plain) flour
85g (1/4 cup) honey
55g (1/4 cup) light olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp extra honey for glazing
Directions
Note: I took 100g mature starter and fed it with 50g each water and flour and let it bubble away at room temperature overnight before starting on the muffins in the morning.
Put cranberries in a bowl, cover with warm water, stir and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Drain through a sieve over another bowl and set aside – you can use the soaking water as part or all of your dough water, depending on how much there is.
Mix starter, water and flour together in a large bowl until combined into a shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 2 hours.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200°C (390°F) and grease or line muffin tin(s).
Whisk honey and oil together, then add, along with cranberries, salt and baking soda, to dough and mix in with your hands or a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook until everything is combined.
Fill muffin holes to about 3/4 full. This is easiest done with a spoon, as you are working with a very sticky, thin dough.
Bake for 22 – 25 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
When done, remove from muffin tin and place on a wire rack. Heat the extra honey in the microwave and brush onto the warm muffins, then leave to cool completely.
pizzarossa 
Your muffins look quite festive, bursting with bright red cranberries and ready for the holiday season. Does the olive oil keep them extra moist?
Thanks, Dee 🙂 Yep – I’ve made them before with no oil or fat at all and they dried out very quickly. These stay soft and moist much longer.
G’day Rachel, your muffins look yum and bet they taste great too!
Love your photo and wish could have one of these right now, true!
Cheers! Joanne
Thanks, Joanne! 🙂 LOL! I always type your name with an “a” at the end then have to correct it – my best friend’s name is Joanna 🙂
YUM – I love the look of these muffins and I bet they taste delicious. I love that honey is the sweetener – so yummy!!
Thanks, Shelley! I adore honey, slathered on toast or baked in something or drizzled into tea. It’s so good!
Looking oh so good!
Thanks, Kelster! 🙂
Looks delicious! Welcome back~ Lynn @ Turnips 2 Tangerines
Thanks, Lynn! It’s great to be back in the kitchen!
These are beautiful Rachael, especially with that shiny honey glaze on top!
Thanks, Korena! 🙂
Beautiful muffins! I can almost taste the cranberry and honey just looking at them.
Thanks, Rebecca! 🙂
I love finding recipes using honey. We have a big bucket of it from a local bee-keeper. Yum!
Oooh, I’m very jealous!!! Wonderful stuff 🙂
Numbers have a way of doing that, don’t they? Even so, your muffins look delectable. Love the photo. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Cathy! Yep, numbers never work out just the way you want them!
Yay, I am glad you are back! 🙂 These muffins look delicious! I am with you, I love pretty much all things cranberry! 🙂 Awesome using honey instead of sugar and using the olive oil in there, too! This must have been a nice moist muffin with tons of great flavor!Thanks for baking with us this month!
Thanks, Jenni! The oil kept them beautifully soft and moist. I think I may need to bake another batch!
Yeah, the conversion thing is a pain. I don’t get the cups and spoons thing. They are so inaccurate. And what makes it more confusing is that the american cups and spoons measurement is different from the Australian, and I think the British is different again. The cranberries and honey combination seem like an interesting combination, by the way. Looks delicious.
Thanks, Belle! That’s so true about countries using the same name for different measurements, especially for cups. When I use tablespoons and teaspoons, I just make them flat because such a small variation rarely causes a problem, but for cups it often means the difference between success and failure. If only the baking world could unite with one system!
Just made these and they turned out great! Very festive looking. I used fresh cranberries cuz that’s what I had on hand and used milk in place if the water. Very good
I’m so pleased you liked them! Fresh cranberries must be fantastic! 🙂
Can I freeze these once baked?
Absolutely! Wrap them individually in foil to freeze them, then let them thaw at room temperature still in the foil and they should be just as fresh as the day they were baked.
Thank you! I hate throwing away starter, so end up with extra and love to bake and freeze items.
I’m just like that too Crystal! It seems such a waste!
Just made these as small muffins, delicious warm from the oven. Haven’t used the honey glaze, like not adding processed sugar. Didn’t see the need to wait for 2 hours before adding other ingredients given that the air is getting mixed out anyway. I might try adding everything except the baking soda and letting them rise in the muffin tin before baking next time?
Hi Omega, glad you liked them! I let the dough sit so the starter had a bit of opportunity to develop flavour and gluten, but it’s probably not entirely necessary. You could certainly try it that way, too!
Made these today with raisins instead of cranberries as I didn’t have any. The rose beautifully & tasted yummy to boot, only thing the bun papers stuck to them & it was a horrible job to get them out. Any advice?? Thanks, Freckles73
Hi Freckles, I think the only option with sourdough muffins is to spray the liners – they do stick way more than yeast or baking powder muffins. Glad you enjoyed them anyway! 🙂