Perfectly moist and flavorful Cranberry Apple Muffins! Topped with a buttery streusel, these are great for breakfast, or to store in the freezer for a rainy day.
If you love today’s recipe, be sure to whip up a batch of our classic blueberry muffins. Or give our easy banana nut muffins a try soon.
Why this Recipe Works
Cranberry and apple are a match made in heaven. The tart-and-sweet combo tastes extra delicious folded into fluffy muffins. Not to mention the beautiful pop of cranberry color in each one!
I love baking all kinds of muffin recipes and I especially love when I can create a coffee-shop style baked good at home!
These Cranberry Apple Muffins are amazing–even better than anything in the Starbucks pastry case.
- The base is a sweet, moist muffin with a great crumb and texture.
- I added in some fresh diced apples and some frozen cranberries.
- The topping is a buttery streusel that adds a delicious crunch with every bite!
Whenever I go through the effort to make muffins from scratch, I try to make a BIG batch to make it even more worth it. This recipe makes 24 muffins, so you’ll have plenty to enjoy, share or freeze for future muffin cravings.
These are perfect for fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas brunch but of course you can enjoy them anytime of year!
Ingredient Notes
- Cranberries – You can use fresh or frozen cranberries!
- Apples – Remove the peels and dice apples into small pieces before using in the recipe.
- Buttermilk- Store bought or use my recipe for Homemade Buttermilk.
Step by Step Instructions
STEP 1. Muffin batter
Beat the butter with the sugar, eggs and extracts in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix while slowly drizzling in the buttermilk. Continue mixing for a few minutes to make a fluffy batter.
Fold in the diced apples and cranberries, then spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin.
STEP 2. Streusel
Combine all ingredients for the topping in a small bowl with your hands. Sprinkle the crumbly mixture over the tops of the unbaked muffins.
STEP 3. Bake
Bake the muffins in a preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean (about 20 minutes).
Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store the cranberry muffins in an airtight container or cake saver at room temperature for up to a few days. They’re perfect with your morning coffee!
Recipe FAQs
I like to freeze mine in Ziploc bags. Then, you can remove as many muffins as you need without having to thaw all of them.
I wouldn’t. The texture and water content of fresh vs. frozen is different and will affect the taste of the muffins. Canned cranberries are usually cooked with added syrups or sweeteners so those won’t work either.
Yes, you can bake this in a 9 x 5 or 8 x 4 loaf pan, you’ll just need to add some additional baking time.
More Apple Recipes
- Apple Shortbread Bars: hands down these delicious cookie bars are one of my favorite treats!!
- Apple Crumble: a classic dessert topped with ice cream. It doesn’t get much better than this!!
- Apple Blondies: looking for something different, yet amazing? These blondies are chewy, sweet, and topped with frosting. OMG YUM!!
More Muffin Recipes
See all Muffins recipes
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Cranberry Apple Muffins
Ingredients
For the muffins:
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 ½ cup frozen cranberries
- 1 cup apples sliced, peeled, and diced
For the streusel:
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with baking spray. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract and sugar until well blended. Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. While beating this in, slowly add buttermilk. Once added, beat for 2-3 minutes, until batter is fluffy. Fold in cranberries and diced apples.
- Spoon muffin batter into muffin tins, about 2/3 full.
- In a small bowl, combined streusel ingredients with hands. The mixture should become a crumbly topping. Sprinkle generously over muffins, using a knife to slightly tap or swirl some of the mixture into the muffin batter.
- Bake muffins for 20-22 minutes, until toothpick in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pans 5 minutes.
- Remove from pans and cool on wire rack. Store in airtight container (or cake saver) for several days. Or freeze in ziploc until ready to enjoy.
Notes
- I like to freeze mine in Ziploc bags. Then, you can remove as many muffins as you need without having to thaw all of them.
- I wouldn’t use fresh cranberries. The texture and water content of fresh vs. frozen is different and will affect the taste of the muffins. Canned cranberries are usually cooked with added syrups or sweeteners so those won’t work either.
- You can bake this in a 9 x 5 or 8 x 4 loaf pan, you’ll just need to add some additional baking time.
Nutrition
Seasonal fruit flavor meets buttery crumb topping in these perfect Cranberry Apple Muffins! These moist and sweet breakfast treats smell amazing while they’re baking and taste even better. I can’t wait for you to try them!
I tried this recipe in a loaf pan and it worked out fine. I baked it for 55 minutes then I put a piece of foil on top to keep the streusel from getting too dark and baked for another 15-20 minutes. I think this would work fine in a cake pan as well. It seems more of a coffee cake to me. My one suggestion would be to fill the pans about 1/3 full, add a layer of streusel, then add more batter to fill 2/3 full and top with the rest of the streusel. I tried running a knife into it to pull it in from the top but that didn’t really work. After cooling the loaf, a lot of the streusel topping pulled away from the cake a fell off. I also had some of the topping left over. Thanks so much for the recipe.