Recipe: Festive Spiced Cranberry Muffins

Jordans wished us a Berry Merry Christmas by sending us through a couple of their products - a box of Super Berry Country Crisp and a bag of Super 3 Seeds Granola - along with a recipe to try out for Festive Spiced Cranberry Muffins. In honour of New Year's Eve, we added some chocolate champagne bottles to the icing to decorate them. Very nice they were too !

Festive Spiced Cranberry Muffins

Ingredients

•100 g (4oz) Jordans Super 3 Seed Granola

•125g (5oz) Butter, melted and slightly cooled

•2 Tablespoons Milk

•1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

•2 Large Eggs, beaten

•100g (4oz) Self-raising flour

•1 Teaspoon Ground Mixed Spice

•75g (3oz) Light Muscovado Sugar

•75g (3oz) Dried Cranberries

•1 Banana, mashed

•Topping:

•75g (3oz) Dried Cranberries

• Finely grated rind and juice from 1 small orange

•200g (7oz) Medium-fat Soft Cheese

•1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan oven 160°C, Gas Mark 4.

2) Line 8 holes of a muffin tin with squares of baking paper or paper muffin cases. (If you make eight, they must be HUGE ! We made 18 and they filled up the cake cases nicely.)

3) Mix together the cooled melted butter, milk, vanilla extract and eggs.

4) In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, mixed spice, sugar, cranberries and Jordans Super 3 Seeds Granola, breaking up any large clusters. (I used Dark Muscovado that I'd received from Tate & Lyle to try out - it gives it a lovely rich caramel flavour.)

5) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with the mashed banana, being careful not to over mix i.e. don’t beat the mixture! Spoon into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes, until firm and golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

The temptation to eat them now will be immense... But hold out for the topping. (Well, we did eat one to see what they were like - they are lovely and gooey and moist and reminded us of banana bread.)

Here's how to make it: Put the cranberries into a saucepan with the orange juice and simmer gently until the liquid has evaporated. Cool completely. Once nice and cool, stir them into the soft cheese with the vanilla extract. (I only had half a bag of cranberries which went in the muffin mix so I decided to improvise and tried mixing cranberry sauce into Philly cheese, with a few drops of vanilla paste. Instant frosting and it tasted delicious !)

Use to top the cranberry Christmas muffins, then decorate with the orange zest. (Or, in our case, chocolate champagne bottles.)

Cook’s tips:

•The secret of successful muffins is to make sure that you don’t over-mix the wet and dry ingredients.

•These yummy muffins are lovely on their own, so if you don't fancy the topping fear not. They taste just as good without it.

•Another time, use dried cherries instead of cranberries, though you’ll need to chop them in half.

•Fab for Christmas Morning too!

•Suitable for freezing

Everyone loved them so we'll be making these again, even if it's not Christmas any more !

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Making a French Galette des Rois (Epiphany Tart)

Making Flowerpot Bread from The Kids Only Cookbook

Madhouse recipe : Savoury Tuna Cakes