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 the orange flavor in 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 (look for ones sweetened with apple juice instead of corn syrup) 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 substituting lemon zest and just a tablespoon of lemon juice instead of the orange. Or 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
Paleo Cranberry Orange Muffins
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
More easy paleo muffin recipes
Paleo Blueberry Muffins [Video]
Lemon Poppy Paleo Muffins
Apple Paleo Muffins
Carrot Pineapple Paleo Muffins
maribel B
November 25 at 9:01 pmDelicious! 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.
Lisa
November 26 at 5:36 pmThank you Maribel! I’m so glad you enjoyed them.
bethann
November 22 at 11:00 pmDid you use the same amount of coconut oil as the ghee? do you remember?
Kathie
November 29 at 8:29 pmWould it work to use almond butter instead of almond flour? They came out tasting kind of heavy.
Lisa
November 30 at 1:41 pmI’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/.
Danielle
April 19 at 4:24 pmIs 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
Lisa
April 23 at 11:23 amHi 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.
FitFuel Foodie
July 9 at 4:53 pmI’ve to try!! <3
paleowithcream
October 25 at 11:55 pmThese are my favourite sweet muffins, I have made them about four times and just love them!
Lisa
October 26 at 3:49 pmAwesome! I’m so glad you love them!
Fawn
November 18 at 7:52 amCan coconut sugar be substituted for the honey? I just don’t have enough honey on hand and want to make them right now!
Lisa
November 18 at 5:01 pmHi 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!
Kim
November 27 at 12:14 pmI just made these but used a donut pan instead. They turned out amazing!
Judy
December 3 at 9:46 amGreat 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.
Lisa
December 3 at 2:20 pmYay! I’m so glad you loved it. This is a great recipe to experiment with. Thanks for sharing your substitutions!
Diana
December 26 at 11:47 amThese are great! Swapped out the orange zest and juice for lemon – and added a pinch of nutmeg. Yum!
Lisa
December 26 at 12:15 pmThank you, Diana, I’m so glad you loved them! And the lemon and nutmeg sounds great – I’ll have to try it that way!
Sharon Gibson Lepore
January 14 at 6:22 pmI 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.
Lisa
January 18 at 2:12 pmHi 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!
Sharon Gibson Lepore
February 1 at 11:55 pmThank 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. =)
Karen
March 3 at 9:43 amHow 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!
Lisa
March 3 at 9:57 amHi 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.
Lydya
March 19 at 10:20 amWhat can I replace the eggs with for allergies?
CJ Huang
October 24 at 1:20 pmCranberry 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!
Emily
October 29 at 12:51 pmI 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.
Lisa
October 30 at 11:48 amHi 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!
zee
November 20 at 2:24 amOMG!!!!! 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 🙂
Lisa
November 20 at 5:54 pmYay! Glad you love them, Zee!
Mona Blowatt
November 21 at 5:19 pmWhen adding berries or other fruit I always toss in a bit of flour helps to hold the up from the bottom.
Karen
February 10 at 7:37 pmI 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!
Lisa
February 11 at 12:52 pmYay! Thanks for sharing your variation, Karen!
Emma
April 22 at 7:07 amThese 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
Lauren
November 19 at 8:20 pmHi,
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!
Susan
April 30 at 4:17 pmYes, I just made them into a loaf, using an 8.5” x 4.5” glass loaf pan. I baked it at 325° for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, checking it every five minutes. It turned out beautifully golden and with a moist crumb!
Patricia
January 13 at 9:02 pmI tried he cranberry orange muffins today–very good! Will definitely make these again!
Maria
February 5 at 3:14 pmThank you so much for the cranberry and orange muffin recipe! They are delicious and they smelled so nice while cooking!
Maria
May 15 at 11:45 amI would like to make these, but only have organic lightly sweetened dry cranberries. Would I need to soak these cranberries prior to baking?
Rose
April 22 at 11:10 pmSo thrilled with how these turned out! They are so easy to make and so delicious…this is definitely my new favorite muffin recipe. I doubled the amount of orange zest and was really pleased with the results.
LaJeana
May 9 at 8:07 amI added the orange pulp and used 1 cup almond flour and 1/3 cup of coconut flour, arrowroot starch and paleo baking mix and an extra egg. Hubby loved them.