Can you believe we’re less than a week out from Christmas?! Trust me, you’ll want to whip up a batch of these Cranberry Orange Oat Muffins for breakfast for yourself and/or family this week! I made these for myself a few weeks ago and was crushing them for meal prepped breakfasts and snacks. I couldn’t get enough!
I love the little bursts of tangy brightness that the fresh cranberries bring to the muffins, along with the subtle orange flavor throughout thanks to plenty of orange zest and orange juice. The crumb topping really is what makes these muffins incredible though. The brown sugar, butter, flour, and oats combine to make the most delicious crumbly topping – perfectly sweet, with big enough chunks that you can bite into…or pull them off and eat them on their own 😉 I will not judge you for how you like to eat the oat crumble on your muffins!
These muffins also have a nice little kick of protein thanks to the 2 scoops of protein powder added to the batter…6 grams of protein per muffin! If you’ve been to my blog before, you know I love to incorporate protein into my baked goods, but I don’t like to add so much that people can tell there’s protein in them. These muffins are nice and tender, with a perfectly moist crumb inside. The key to nailing the texture here is to use a combination of whey protein and casein protein. Too much whey and you end up with a chewy muffin, too much casein and it’ll be way too dry. There are protein powders on the market that have both already combined in one container – just be careful with those because you don’t know what the ratio of whey to casein is, and some of them incorporate egg white protein powder too! Having extra egg whites in your muffin batter is a sure way to throw off the texture.
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Recipe
Cranberry Orange Oat Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats, (120 grams)
- 0.625 cups all purpose flour, (1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp = 75 grams)
- 1 scoop Dymatize Elite Vanilla Casein Protein Powder, (34 grams)
- 1 scoop Cellucor Whipped Vanilla whey protein powder, (32 grams)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, roughly chopped, (150 grams)
- 1 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, (305 grams)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, (2.67 fl oz)
- 1/3 cup orange juice, (2.67 fl oz)
- 1/4 cup sugar, (60 grams)
- 3 tbsp orange zest (zest of about 3 oranges), (12 grams)
- 2 eggs, room temperature, (100 grams)
- 1 tsp vailla extract
Crumb Topping
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, (67 grams)
- 1 tbsp sugar, (15 grams)
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened or partially melted, (45 grams)
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour, (42 grams)
- 1/3 cup rolled oats, (27 grams)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Icing (Optional – not included in nutrition info)
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar, (90 grams)
- 1 1/2 tsp milk of choice
- 1 1/2 tsp orange juice
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 425°.
- Make the muffin batter: Mix all dry muffin ingredients with chopped cranberries and set aside.
- Whisk all wet muffin ingredients until well combined. Add to dry mixture and mix until just combined. Divide evenly into 16 non-stick baking cups.
- Make the crumb topping: Mix the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon together until combined. Stir in the softened butter until well combined, and then gently mix in the flour and rolled oats using a fork. Keep the mixture as large crumbles and do not over-mix. Using your hand or a spoon, divide the topping among the 16 muffins and gently press into the tops of the muffins so it sticks.
- Bake: Bake at 425° for 5 minutes, then lower heat to 350° and bake for 20-22 minutes or until tops of muffins begin to brown slightly and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Optional – add icing: Whisk milk and orange juice into the powdered sugar until it reaches a runny consistency. Drizzle on top of cooled muffins.
Tips & Tricks
Nutrition Information
