These soft, moist, and flavorful paleo cranberry orange muffins are studded with pecans and spiced just right! Great for the holidays or year round, these muffins are kid approved, gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free.
I think my favorite thing to bake is muffins. Recently, at least.
You see, I’ve had quite an adventure baking 5 batches of cookies over the past few days, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to go to batch #5 for muffins. Batch 4, yes, but that last one was probably just to make sure batch 3 was a keeper.
This is of no interest to you, probably, but for me it means that (for now) muffins are my happy place.
Did I mention they’re actually FUN to photograph too? And that is saying a lot, because I find so. many. foods. very UN-FUN to shoot. For example, meat, eggs (I love them, but not easy!), brownies and bars, loaves of bread. But muffins? A delight, almost every time.
But right, we’re talking about THESE muffins today, not just any muffins. And what I want you to know about them, is that they’re just as (if not more) easy and delicious as they are photogenic.
I based these pecan cranberry orange muffins on my orange almond poppyseed muffins and cranberry orange coffee cake – two of my favorites – so I knew these would be winners before I got them in the oven.
Luckily, my prediction came true and they were awesome – perfectly spiced, lots of orange flavor in the muffin and great rise and texture. If you’ve been baking paleo for a while, you know the texture can be all over the place – from dense and too moist to chalky and dry.
If you’ve been baking paleo for a while, you know the texture can be all over the place – from dense and too moist to chalky and dry.
Sometimes (not always) that can be due to the coconut flour in a recipe. Since it absorbs so much moisture, small changes can make big differences in the finished product.
While I love coconut flour and use it in lots of recipes, I decided to go without it this time, which really makes this recipe foolproof, in my opinion, since the other ingredients used are far more forgiving.
As for the cranberries, I somewhat recently found delicious fruit-sweetened dried cranberries on Amazon and have been using them in everything – sweet (like this recipe) to savory (like my stuffed squash and Thanksgiving stuffing). They’re delicious and incredibly versatile, and of course perfect for the holiday season (and beyond!)
If you’re looking for paleo friendly (refined sugar free) dried cranberries, I’d definitely recommend trying them. The cranberries are linked above, and below with the recipe.
Are you ready to get started? I have a feeling you’ll love baking (and eating) these cranberry orange muffins as much as I did. Let’s go!
Pecan Cranberry Orange Muffins {Paleo, Dairy-Free}
Pecan Cranberry Orange Muffins {Paleo, Dairy-Free}
These soft, moist, and flavorful paleo cranberry orange muffins are studded with pecans and spiced just right! Great for the holidays or year round, these muffins are kid approved, gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free.
Ingredients
- 4 eggs room temp
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 tsp finely grated orange zest or zest of 1 large orange
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted and cooled to almost room temp
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract or a combo of vanilla and almond extract
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/3 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp cloves or allspice
- 2/3 cup raw pecan halves chopped
- 2/3 cup dried cranberries fruit sweetened
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a 12 cup muffins pan with parchment liners, or lightly grease with coconut oil.
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In a mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, set aside.
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In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, maple syrup, orange juice and zest, coconut oil, and vanilla extract (almond extract if using).
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Using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just moistened. Fold in the pecans and cranberries, then spoon the mixture into muffin cups about 3/4 of the way up (I made 12).
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Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until just done and a toothpick inserted in the center of 1 comes out clean - these bake quickly and overtaking can dry them out! Muffins will have rounded tops and very light golden color when done.
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Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on wire racks. Store any leftovers at room temperature, loosely covered for one day, afterwards they can be stored in the refrigerator for 4-5 days and lightly defrosted/softened in the toaster oven or oven. Enjoy!
Nutrition
What I Used To Make My Pecan Cranberry Orange Muffins:
Want More Paleo Muffin Recipes? Try One of These!
Sweet Potato Cinnamon Raisin Muffins
Orange Almond Poppyseed Muffins
Paleo Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping
Apple Coffee Cake Muffins with Crumb Top
Simple Paleo Blueberry Muffins
Double Chocolate Tahini Banana Muffins
Tell Me!
What’s your favorite thing to bake?
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You always do such a wonderful amazing job on any of the paleo breads; they don’t seem paleo because they’re so fluffy. I love that you mixed the flavors of cranberry, orange, and pecans, because those are all such warm delicious holiday fall flavors.
Could fresh or frozen cranberries be used?
Can I use a store bought “gluten free flour”??
I struggle with paleo baking. My batter is always so dry. I know it’s something I am doing. Do you have any suggestions?
The only thing I can think of is that you’re over-measuring dry ingredients or under-measuring the wet. That said, some batters are thicker than you would expect – this one isn’t particularly thick, but, if you bake with coconut flour often that could be the issue – the batter will be thick no matter what. Are you measuring in dry measuring cups and leveling off the amounts, and are you using liquid measuring cups to measure liquids?
Second batch a success!! To much dry for sure and re read instructions to add dry to wet until the right consistency.
Great!
Made these last week! Loved them!
So happy they worked out!
Made these this morning. My husband doesn’t much care for Paleo/Primal muffins, usually too dry, not sweet and grainy. He went nuts and rated them 9.5 out of 10. We rate all of our recipes to see if we really want to repeat them. I had to chase him away to not eat them all, lol. I chose this recipe because it seemed it would be the best (maple syrup instead of honey because honey has more fructose and sugars). Thanks so much! Happy wife.
These are perfect and husband approved! I just love all of your recipes.
What changes would you recommend to make these keto?
I’m not sure – you’d definitely need to sub the sweetener but I’m not familiar with which one and how much to use.