Paleo cranberry orange muffins – gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, and perfect for cranberry season! There's nothing like a warm muffin for breakfast.
I have a muffin obsession. They are one of my favorite things to bake, and I love coming up with different variations — usually based on whatever I happen to have in the kitchen. Today, I had oranges in the refrigerator and some cranberries in the freezer. Orange and cranberry is a perfect combination. And these easy paleo cranberry muffins are delicious.
Paleo Cranberry Muffins
For this recipe, I zested the entire orange into the dry ingredients, and added the juice of half of the orange to the wet ingredients. And I tossed the cranberries in frozen, since I didn't want to take the time to thaw them. I always have cranberries in the freezer. I buy a few bags of fresh cranberries in the fall and freeze them for use year round.
The fresh cranberries give a nice tartness to the muffins so they are not too sweet. But you can always substitute dried cranberries, sweetened with apple juice, if you want your muffins a little sweeter.
You can even swirl in some leftover holiday cranberry sauce for an extra boost of cranberry flavor. And for a variation without orange, try these cranberry applesauce muffins.
I love to bake muffins with both almond flour and coconut flour. I used almond flour for this recipe. Almond flour batter tends to be thicker and it helps keep the cranberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins. If you prefer coconut flour muffins, try these banana blackberry or lemon poppy muffins.
These paleo cranberry orange muffins are a wonderful treat you can enjoy any time of the year.
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How to make gluten free cranberry orange muffins
These quick and easy paleo cranberry orange muffins are gluten-free and grain-free.
- 200 grams almond flour about 2 cups
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- zest of 1 orange
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons ghee or coconut oil, melted
- 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries or organic dried cranberries
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease or line muffin tin.
- Combine dry ingredients and orange zest in large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in medium bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then fold in cranberries.
- Using a large ice cream or cookie scoop, fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
- Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.
For dairy-free: use coconut oil instead of ghee
More easy paleo muffin recipes
Paleo Blueberry Muffins [Video]
Lemon Poppy Paleo Muffins
Apple Paleo Muffins
Carrot Pineapple Paleo Muffins
Delicious! I have made several paleo muffins recipes and this one is by far the best. I changed the clarified butter for coconut oil and added walnuts. I made it with the organic dried cranberries.
Thank you Maribel! I’m so glad you enjoyed them.
Did you use the same amount of coconut oil as the ghee? do you remember?
Would it work to use almond butter instead of almond flour? They came out tasting kind of heavy.
I’ve never tried them with almond butter, so I don’t know if that would work. They should not be heavy with the almond flour. You may need to use less almond flour, depending on the brand and how it’s measured, or larger eggs. I always use very finely ground blanched almond flour (usually Honeyville) and weigh it. Here’s a post on how I measure it: https://cookeatpaleo.com/how-to-measure-almond-flour/.
Is the batter supposed to be dry? I followed this recipie exactly and the batter is dry and crumbly. I am new to paleo baking so maybe this is normal? I did use coconut flour
Hi Danielle, almond flour and coconut flour have very different properties and cannot be substituted for each other in recipes. As you you found out, this recipe will not work with coconut flour. If you prefer coconut flour muffins, try the Banana Blackberry Muffins or Lemon Poppy Muffins.
I’ve to try!! <3
These are my favourite sweet muffins, I have made them about four times and just love them!
Awesome! I’m so glad you love them!
Can coconut sugar be substituted for the honey? I just don’t have enough honey on hand and want to make them right now!
Hi Fawn, I have only tested this recipe with honey. Replacing a wet ingredient with a dry ingredient will change the consistency of the batter – not sure it that will change the texture once they’re baked. Maple syrup might be a better sub if you have it. Hope this helps!
I just made these but used a donut pan instead. They turned out amazing!
Great recipe – and very forgiving! I was using what I had to make some Christmassy muffins: I ran out of ghee so had half-and-half ghee and coconut oil; ditto almond flour so used hazelnut; I replaced the orange zest and juice with segments from two seedless clementines, halved; then I added some cinnamon and nutmeg. They came out brilliantly! I’m looking forward to making more – and perhaps having more fun mixing it up. Thanks for posting.
Yay! I’m so glad you loved it. This is a great recipe to experiment with. Thanks for sharing your substitutions!
These are great! Swapped out the orange zest and juice for lemon – and added a pinch of nutmeg. Yum!
Thank you, Diana, I’m so glad you loved them! And the lemon and nutmeg sounds great – I’ll have to try it that way!
I make my own almond milk (unblanched) every other day, using 1 cup of almonds, 32 oz. water, plus one Medjool date (for sweetening). I dehydrate the remaining pulp in a warm oven & then run it through a food processor to make my own almond meal. I made these muffins, using 2 cups of my unblanched almond meal, and it created a very heavy dough. I used a heaping 1/2 cup of fresh cranberries (rough chopped) and added a Tablespoon or so of my Almond Milk, to loosen it up a bit. After baking them, the texture was still heavy and a bit chalky (probably because it’s unblanched almond meal instead of a fine almond flour, I know). I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how I could adjust this recipe to make it lighter & less grainy, yet still use my almond meal. I need to find a use for it, and these muffins were tasty, I just didn’t care for the texture very much. Thanks.
Hi Sharon, I have not tested this recipe with unblanched almond meal, but here are a couple suggestions. Whipping the egg whites separately, and then folding them into the batter should make it lighter. Also, just using less almond meal might make them less dense – the consistency should be more of a thick batter than a heavy dough. Hope this helps!
Thank you, I’ll give that a try. The taste was delicious, but the texture was just too heavy. I’ll try this recipe again, using your suggestion of less almond meal and whipping the egg whites separately. I’ll let you know how they come out. =)
How do you think these muffins, and your other muffins, would turn out if I made the batter a day ahead, left them in the fridge and baked them the next morning? Trying to save some time in the mornings. They look delicious. Thanks!
Hi Karen, the batter should be baked immediately after mixing. To save time in the mornings, I bake muffins ahead and freeze them. Then in the morning I just put as many as I need in a cold oven and turn it on to 300 degrees to thaw and warm the muffins.
What can I replace the eggs with for allergies?
Cranberry is such a yummy flavor combo, and we can actually get fresh cranberries around now. 🙂 I’m also starting to play around with different flours, so maybe this will serve as some yummy motivation!
I made these and they are delicious, though slightly on the sweet side for me. Do you think if i reduced the honey by, say 1/3, it would change the batter consistency too much? I love how moist they are. Also just thinking about adding more cranberries for extra tartness.
Hi Emily, I haven’t tested these with less honey, but I think it should work as long as you don’t reduce it too much. Let me know how it turns out!
OMG!!!!! these muffins are soooooooo good thank you so much for this fast simple recipe this is my second time making them I’m going to share this time 🙂
Yay! Glad you love them, Zee!
When adding berries or other fruit I always toss in a bit of flour helps to hold the up from the bottom.
I added a little bit of applesauce and maybe a little more orange juice (I didn’t measure it!) and baked it as a cake. It was delicious. Thank you!
Yay! Thanks for sharing your variation, Karen!
These were AMAZING! I test all my paleo cooking on my staff at work, and these got rave reviews
These will definitely be a weekly treat
Hi,
Has anyone tried this recipe as a bread instead of muffins? Just wondering if the oven temperature would be different and how long it took to bake?
Thanks!
I tried he cranberry orange muffins today–very good! Will definitely make these again!
Thank you so much for the cranberry and orange muffin recipe! They are delicious and they smelled so nice while cooking!
I would like to make these, but only have organic lightly sweetened dry cranberries. Would I need to soak these cranberries prior to baking?