Learn how to make the best lemon cranberry muffins with this easy recipe. These tangy sour cream muffins are loaded with lemon flavour and tart cranberries, plus an extra hit of lemon flavour from the easy lemon glaze drizzled on top after baking. These winter muffins have a moist and tender crumb from the sour cream in the batter.
Cranberries pair well with citrus, especially in orange-flavoured and lemon-flavoured baked goods. These lemon muffins with cranberries folded into the batter before baking are inpsired by this moist orange cranberry bundt cake.
For this muffin recipe, we use the reverse creaming method, a popular mixing method in baking for moist cakes and muffins.
Jump to:
- What You Need To Make Lemon Muffins With Cranberries
- Substitutions And Variations
- Pans, Muffin Liners, And Special Tools
- Key Steps To Make Cranberry Lemon Muffins
- Adding Extra Lemon Flavour To Muffins With A Glaze
- Storage
- How To Defrost Muffins
- Serving Suggestions
- Other Citrus Recipes To Try
- Muffin Baking FAQs
- 📖 Recipe
What You Need To Make Lemon Muffins With Cranberries
The beauty of muffin recipes is that they require just a few ingredients and you probably have most on hand. Here's what you need to make these cranberry lemon muffins:
- Flour-all-purpose is ideal, or you can mix whole wheat and all-purpose, but it will affect the texture a little.
- Sugar-granulated sugar preferably, because the flavour of brown sugar will interfere with the delicate taste of lemon in these muffins
- Leavening agents-specifically both chemical leaveners, baking powder and baking soda
- Salt-I bake with Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt. If you use a different salt that has more sodium per gram, like table salt, add half the amount so the muffins aren't overly salty
- Butter-either salted or unsalted will work, though if your salted butter has a lot of salt in it, you may have to adjust the salt in the recipe
- Eggs-use large eggs preferably because smaller eggs may lead to drier muffins
- Sour cream, preferably full-fat (14 % fat); otherwise, the muffins may be dry
- Vanilla extract to enhance the sweetness and the flavour of the muffins
- Lemon juice and lemon zest to add as much lemon flavour as possible
- Cranberries-fresh or frozen will work here. If using frozen, incorporate them into the batter when still frozen. Dried cranberries (like Craisins) also work!
- Icing sugar-to make the glaze
Please see the recipe card for exact ingredients and quantities.
Tip: Read about baking soda versus baking powder if you're not sure what the difference is!
Substitutions And Variations
- Cranberries-fresh or frozen will work here. If using frozen, add them to the batter while still frozen. Dried cranberries also work!
- Blueberries-swapping blueberries for cranberries is an excellent, easy change for summer lemon blueberry muffins!
- Sour cream-full-fat Greek yogurt can also work as a substitute for sour cream in this muffin recipe
- Chocolate-add white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate to the muffin batter. Dark chocolate also works well in these muffins.
- Orange-you can replace the lemon zest and juice with orange juice to make these into orange cranberry muffins
- Streusel topping-if you'd like to add a streusel topping to these muffins, use the topping from these honey blueberry muffins and scatter it over the tops before baking. You can still glaze them.
Pans, Muffin Liners, And Special Tools
I baked these muffins in two 6-cup muffin pans. You can also use one 12-cup pan if you have it! Makes it faster and easier to get all the muffins in and out of the oven at once.
For this recipe, regular paper liners work great (same as for cupcakes), or you can opt to use silicone liners. I don't recommend parchment liners because the muffins won't stick and they'll fall right off (unless that's what you want).
If you prefer to bake without liners, I recommend greasing the wells of your muffin pans with cooking spray.
For scooping the muffin batter, I recommend using two spoons or a large disher.
Key Steps To Make Cranberry Lemon Muffins
Combine the zest with the sugar.
Rub the zest into the sugar to draw out the lemon oil and other flavour compounds. This is the secret to making flavourful lemon baked goods!
For the reverse creaming method, mix the dry ingredients, sugar, and butter to form a coarse, crumbly mixture.
Add the liquid mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.
The batter will be quite thick!
Add fresh or frozen cranberries to the lemon muffin batter.
Stir them in with a wooden spoon, just until they are evenly dispersed.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups lined with paper or silicone liners.
Bake until puffy and golden brown. Use a cake tester to check if the muffins are done.
Adding Extra Lemon Flavour To Muffins With A Glaze
A great way to add lemon flavour to a lemon muffin or cake is to glaze it after baking. Even a simple powdered sugar glaze made with lemon juice can greatly improve the muffin's flavour, adding the acidity lemon zest lacks. This works especially well on muffin tops. Of course, the unglazed stump won't have that lemony hit, but the glaze still helps bring out the flavour.
You can also brush the surface of cakes with a lemon simple syrup which, again, will help bring some of that acidity to a layer cake.
This muffin recipe makes a thick batter, which creates a nice domed muffin top, which rises up instead of spreading out as they bake. That's how you make the best muffins!
Storage
You can store these moist lemon muffins in an airtight container for 3-4 days, but I prefer to freeze them.
Remember to fully cool the muffins to room temperature (for 3-4 hours) before transferring them to an airtight container or freezer bag for long-term storage (1-2 months). Freeze the muffins before glazing for the best results. Then ice them before serving.
How To Defrost Muffins
If you want to defrost frozen muffins, you have a few options depending on how much time you have:
- Long method-in the fridge overnight, unwrapped to avoid moisture buildup on the surface of the muffin tops
- At room temperature, unwrapped to avoid moisture buildup on the surface of the muffin tops-this will take a few hours
- Fastest method-in the microwave oven: place the unwrapped muffin on a napkin or a microwave-safe plate. Microwave on HIGH for about 30 seconds for each muffin. Time and results will vary according to the power of your microwave.
Serving Suggestions
Serve these glazed lemon muffins plain. You can also make some homemade lemon curd to enjoy with them!
Other Citrus Recipes To Try
If you love lemony. baked goods, here are a few more citrus recipes to try:
Muffin Baking FAQs
With the two-bowl mixing method, you do not need a mixer or any special equipment. All you need is two bowls, a whisk, a spoon, and of course, muffin pans. The dry ingredients are whisked together in one bowl, and then the soft butter is worked into it. Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl before mixing everything together. It's really easy!
It's very difficult to infuse lemon flavour into baked goods, and there's a limit to how much flavour you can get into a muffin. Your best bet for more flavourful lemon muffins is to use the zest in the batter and the juice in a glaze.
If you want to freeze these cranberry lemon muffins, freeze the cooled muffins without the glaze, then you can glaze them when you defrost them.
My secret to making moist muffins is adding full fat sour cream to the batter. Adding enough sugar will make a more cakey muffin that is very moist. Another option would be to replace the butter with oil, but this would impact the flavour. If you chose to use oil, you will change the mixing method adding the oil along with the liquid ingredients.
If you tried this recipe for the best cranberry lemon muffins (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Cranberry Lemon Muffins
Ingredients
For the muffin batter
- 200 grams granulated sugar
- 30 mL finely grated lemon zest
- 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 2.5 mL baking soda
- 2.5 mL baking powder
- 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature, cut into small pieces
- 125 mL sour cream (14% fat)
- 30 mL fresh lemon juice
- 2 large egg(s)
- 5 mL pure vanilla extract
- 100 grams fresh cranberries or frozen
For the lemon glaze
- 125 grams icing sugar
- 30 mL fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 °F (220 °C). Line two 6-cup muffin pans with 10 muffin paper liners being sure to space them out between the two pans to allow better air flow.
Make the muffin batter
- In a large bowl, combine the granulated sugar and lemon zest. Using your fingertips, rub the ingredients together. This will help bring out the oils in the zest, adding more flavour.
- Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the cubes of softened butter and work it in with your hands, rubbing it in until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir it in (takes about 20 stirs to get the batter mixed).
- Fold the cranberries into the batter gently with a wooden spoon or spatula to evenly distribute them.
- Divide the batter between the 10 paper-lined wells of the two muffin pans.
- Bake at 425°F for 8 minutes, then drop the temperature to 350 ºF and continue baking until a cake tester inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean to check if the muffins are baked. This takes about 15 minutes more and the edges start to turn golden.
- Let cool slightly in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the glaze
- Whisk together the ingredients of the glaze and drizzle the tops of the muffins with it. The glaze should be very thick so that it doesn't all run off. Make sure the muffins have cooled down fully before glazing or the heat will cause the glaze to run off.
Notes
- This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
- For a "puffy" muffin top: refrigerate the batter overnight, then scoop the batter into 8 to 10 muffin paper-lined wells of a muffin pan, sprinkle with streusel topping, and bake them at 350 °F for about 30 minutes.
- For a more fluffy, caky muffin, you can increase the sour cream in the recipe, from 125 mL (½ cup) to 170 mL (⅔ cup) but the muffin top won't be as tall.
Explore More With AI
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.
Mary Pietan says
Are you saying that the recipe for cranberry lemon muffins makes a total of 10 muffins? But you spread them between two muffin pans before you bake them?
Janice says
Hi Mary,
Yes, I split the batter between two muffin pans and it only makes 10 muffins. My pans only have 6 wells each, which is why I need two pans. But if your pan has 12 wells, you'd only need one pan! Hope that makes more sense!
Mary says
Thank you, I just made them and spread 10 liners in 24 cupcakes compartments. They were overflowing so I did one more for a total of 11. Then I read your instructions. I should have done all 12!