Cranberry Pecan Muffins

Do you watch How I Met Your Mother? Remember that episode where Marshall is trying to establish his place in the office and he becomes Fantasy Sports Guy? Well, I've established myself as the Baker at the office. But someone is poaching my turf. Granted, their baked goods are amazing but this mystery baker is reminding me that I'm slacking in my baking duties.

And thus, Muffin Mondays have returned. This week, I'm focusing on using up things in my freezer and pantry instead of purchasing new ingredients. I'm brainstorming ways to use up cranberries since I had two bags of them in my freezer, thinking they would get used quickly.

 

These muffins were a process. I slightly burned the pecans when they were meant to be toasted and honestly, I don't think you need to toast them first. The oven will do that for you. But they turned out nice and dense thanks to the inclusion of yogurt. 

You will need two mixing bowls and two cereal bowls to mix everything. In the largest bowl, combine your dry ingredients. In a cereal bowl, melt some butter and mix in an egg and the plain yogurt. The bowl of wet ingredients is then added to the dry ingredients, pretty standard. The mixture gets pretty thick, it's not soupy like cake batter but gets more difficult to stir. I switched from a whisk to a rubber spatula at this point.

 

The cranberries are tossed in sugar (in the other mixing bowl) before being folded into the muffin batter. I think sugared cranberries look like Christmas, is that weird? Fill your muffin pan with the batter. In the last cereal bowl, you make the topping. The topping consists of melted butter, sugar, flour and toasted (or not) pecans. The topping is not crumbly since we melted the butter, it comes our more like a fudge consistency.

 

Muffins are baked to perfection in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until they are set. This is why I recommend not toasting the pecans, they get a little toasted on top during the baking process anyways.

I hope these make your Mondays better but every day can be muffin day if you want. And mystery baker, the gauntlet has been thrown..

.

 

Recipe
Muffins:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup, 1 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 4 ounces of unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups of frozen cranberries

Topping

• 1/4 cup of pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 425. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or cooking spray.
2. To make the muffins, combine flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, egg and melted butter. Stir the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients until incorporated.
4. Toss the cranberries in the remaining sugar to coat. Fold the cranberries into the muffin mixture. 
5. Spoon the muffin batter into the prepared pan to fill 3/4 of each cup.
6. In another bowl, combine the chopped pecans, flour, sugars, baking powder and salt for the crumb topping with the melted butter. Scoop over top of the muffins. 
7. Bake the muffins for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and firm. 
8. Enjoy warm or the next day!