Crantastically speaking it was an Experiment

Today I was rooting through the fridge looking for what I had (and tossing a couple of items that needed to go) and I found a couple of bags of fresh cranberries.  Thinking back to my plums and peaches recipes I wanted to try doing the same sort of thing with these cranberries.  It took some tweaking to get the sauce tasting right. The first time I asked Hubby to taste it, it was still quite tart.  The amounts I am giving in this recipe are approximate as I did have to constantly taste and add some sweetner and flavourings.  I was quite happy with the end product but then I found myself wondering 'what am I going to do with this cranberry sauce.  I wonder if I can make muffins?'

Before I knew it I was adapting my favourite banana bread substituting the cranberry sauce for the mashed bananas.  Although the muffins did not rise quite a well as I had wanted the results were quite tasty.  The boys both liked them.  I may have to play with the amount of baking soda and perhaps add some baking powder. I think next time I would definitely make the sauce sweeter and add some white chocolate chips and nuts to the muffins.
After the muffins had fully cooled and we tasted them again, they were even better than I had thought.  I also felt like they needed a little something else so I mixed up a glaze to top them with.

 

Cranberry sauce 

•   2 pkgs fresh cranberries 
• ½ cup brown sugar 
• ¼ cup honey
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• Juice of one orange
• Zest of one orange
• 2 cinnamon sticks or 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Rinse and sort through the cranberries

Place cranberries in a pot on medium heat with the other ingredients

As the cranberries start to pop and the juices bubble, use a masher to crush the cranberries

Taste as you go so you can adjust the seasonings and the sweetness to suit your tastes.

Cranberry muffins

In a bowl, mix together: 

• 2 cups flour
•  1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda

In the bowl of the stand mixer combine:

  

• 1/3 cup canola oil
•  1 ¼ cups sugar

Mix well with the paddle attachment and add:

•  2 eggs

Continue mixing until well combined and add:

• 1 ½ cups cranberry sauce

Keep mixing until the cranberry sauce is well incorporated.

Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Stir in with a wooden spoon some nuts of your choice and some white chocolate chips.

Spoon into a lined muffin tin to 2/3 full and bake in a 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes or until fully baked.

To make the glaze mix together:

• Fresh squeezed orange juice
• icing sugar

Play with the amounts until you get the consitency you want to spoon on top of the muffins.