Can you believe there’s less than a month until Christmas? My dad always says that the days of anticipation of a holiday or vacation is the bulk of the fun. Meaning we have no time to waste. Zero. Nada. Zilch. (Any Veggie Tales fans?) Time to crank up the festive tunes, plan all the Christmas parties, admire all the twinkling lights, drink all the peppermint hot chocolate, and bake all the goodies! Make every morning like Christmas morning with these lovely spiced dark chocolate cranberry muffins.
Despite having the thermostat on, my home is always cold in the morning. Or maybe I’m hyper-sensitive to the cold after this experience. I’m reluctant to change out of my warm pajamas and into shorts and a t-shirt for my morning workouts. A warm breakfast before hand helps quite a bit. I’ve broken my 6 month streak of cereal breakfasts and started grabbing for muffins or oatmeal (this gingerbread one is my current favourite). Anything I can heat up and dump lots of cinnamon in or on will do.
These dark chocolate cranberry muffins are fluffy, tender, incredibly easy and healthy. One bowl, no refined sugar, no gluten, and just a bit of coconut oil. The scent of baking cranberries, applesauce, and cinnamon will waft through the air, making your home smell like Christmas. Sometimes I like hanging out on the upper level of my house after baking because it smells extra great up there. Who needs candles when you can just bake?
I think this recipe is particularly nice with the crusty exposed edges, but feel free to use paper liners if that’s more your jam. I always like to reheat my baked goods in my small oven until they’re toasty warm and the chocolate is all melty before eating them for breakfast. These cranberry muffins have been non-vegan-friend tested so I’m sure your Christmas guests will love them too!
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1⅔ cup oat flour
- ⅓ cup quinoa flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ cup fresh cranberries
- ½ cup dark chocolate chunks
- Preheat oven to 400⁰F and grease 10 cavities of a muffin pan. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the applesauce, coconut oil, maple syrup, almond milk, and vanilla together until smooth.
- Add the flours, baking soda and powder, salt, and cinnamon to the wet mixture and mix until thoroughly combined. Fold in the cranberries and chocolate.
- Divide batter evenly between the prepared cavities. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Once baked, allow muffins to rest in the pan for at least 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
These look so good! How do you get the muffins to turn out that shape (i.e. muffin caps instead of just a round cupcake look). I can;t wait to try these 🙂
We used a tall and narrow muffin tray from Ikea and filled the cavities about 3/4 full so that they rose over the edge, thus preventing them from shrinking back down. You could try mimicking the muffin tops by filling a normal muffin tray almost to the top; it would just need a longer baking time.