A celebration of Fall, these cranberry pumpkin muffins are filled with fresh or frozen cranberries, carrot, apple, raisins and seeds. A perfect Fall muffin!
My classic pumpkin muffin recipe is the 1950’s. It’s the perfect pumpkin muffin (in my opinion) in terms of taste, texture and moistness. That said, there is also room in my life for a version of pumpkin muffin that adds more flavours and textures to the mix. This harvest cranberry pumpkin muffin is that muffin!
This lower sugar and lower fat pumpkin muffin has added fresh (or frozen) cranberries, shredded apple and carrots, raisins and seeds, working out to just about 1/2 serving of fruits/vegetable per muffin! The best part of all, is that the pumpkin muffins are still wonderfully delicious and satisfying.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Cranberries We were just a little early for the fresh, local cranberries, so frozen cranberries were used here. Of course, if fresh cranberries are in season, even better! You could use dried cranberries here, which will make for a bit sweeter muffin.
Apples: Use any moderately sweet, red-skinned apple will work just fine here. No need to peel the apple, unless you prefer it.
Raisins: Any type of raisin is fine here or feel free to omit if you like. I’ve used Thompson raisins here.
Pepitas: Also known as pumpkin seeds. I used raw unsalted pumpkin seeds, though salted is fine here, if you like..
Oil: I used vegetable oil here, though canola oil, sunflower oil or any neutral-tasting oil will work here. I haven’t tested this, but I suspect you could replace 1/4 cup of the oil with applesauce, though it will affect the moistness and shelf-life of the resulting muffin.
Sugar: The sugar is reduced here by half from my classic pumpkin muffins, so I don’t feel there is a ton or room to reduce it drastically more. As noted below, you can skip the sugar topping easily, to reduce the sugar if you like.
Step-by-Step Photos
Recipe Tips
- The cranberry pumpkin muffin itself is not super sweet. The bit of sugar in the topping fools you into thinking it’s sweeter than it actually is. I like that. If you’re watching sugar, you can skip the sugar topping and simply sprinkle the chopped pepitas seeds on top of the muffins before baking.
- When making muffins and all the muffin cups aren’t filled, fill the empty cups in the tin half full with water before putting in the oven. This will help your muffins bake evenly.
Recipe Video
Storage and Freezing
As these muffins are reduced in oil and sugar, the shelf life will be shorter than a full fat/sugar muffin. These are best enjoyed within 48 hours of baking.
These muffins will freeze well, up to 3 months.
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Get the Recipe: Harvest Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins
Ingredients
Batter:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil, or canola, sunflower oil etc.
- 1 cup pumpkin puree, not pie filling
- 3/4 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen, halved if large
- 1/2 cup raisins, plumped *see Instructions below
- 1/2 cup carrot, shredded
- 1/4 cup apple, shredded
- 1 Tablespoon all purpose flour
Topping:
- 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds), chopped
- 1 Tablespoon butter, cold
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F (regular bake setting/not fan assisted). Line 9 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.
- Set raisins in a bowl of hot water and allow to stand for 10 minutes (plumping the raisins). Drain and pat dry before adding to the batter.
- Prepare the topping by whisking together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped pepitas. Add the 1 Tbsp cold butter and use your fingertips to gently rub the butter into the dry ingredients until crumbly. Set bowl in the refrigerator until needed.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, white sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and pumpkin. Set aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the fresh cranberries, soaked, drained and dried raisins, carrot and apple. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp all purpose flour and toss to combine. Set aside.
- Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and using a spoon, stir just until combined and no flour is visible. Stir in the cranberry mixture and fold in until well distributed.
- Using a scoop or spoon, divide the batter between the 9 muffins cups. Sprinkle topping mixture on top. Fill any empty muffin cups 1/2 full with water to ensure your muffins bake evenly.
- Bake in preheated oven for 22-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Remove from oven. Allow to cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then gently remove from tins and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins Web Story
More Pumpkin Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
One of the best pumpkin muffin recipes I have tried! Very moist and packed with flavor! A new fall favorite! My slight variations: substituted coconut oil instead of the vegetable oil, added 1/2 cup of walnut pieces and 1/2 cup of chestnut pieces to the batter, and added 1/2 cup of flaked coconut to the topping. I made 20 small “cupcake” size muffins instead of the 9 larger muffins. Portion control! LOL
So glad you enjoyed them, Kay! I love mini muffins, too :) Thanks so much!
Fabulous recipe! I used three mini loaf pans at 360-365° in my Breville toaster oven for about 29 minutes. Cut back on the sugar a bit (maybe used a generous 1/3 cup), used pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon, and golden raisins. For the oil I used half applesauce and half veg oil to make 1/2 cup total. Perfect! This will be on the regular fall and winter baking schedule. And I’ll be hoarding cranberries to freeze so I can keep baking them well into the new year! Thank you for sharing this recipe ❤️
Glad you enjoyed them, Shelley! Thanks so much :)
Making these for the second time today. They’re moist, delicious, not too sweet —perfect! I ended up with twelve, so yay!
So glad you’re enjoying them, Dawn! I love to have these in the freezer all Fall :) Thanks!