Seeded Cranberry Muffins

I'm trying to use up the rest of the buttermilk I bought to make leek and potato soup.  This recipe seemed appropriately seasonal, but I just had to change the name from "Cranberry Seed Muffins" -- at first I thought they were made with cranberry seeds, which, while probably healthy, sounded tedious.

This recipe was supposed to make 12 muffins; I halved the recipe and ended up with 8.  Here's what I used:

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oat or wheat bran
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/6 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/6 cup hulled pumpkin seeds
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
1 egg
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons buttermilk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup fresh cranberries
additional oat bran, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds

Set oven to 375F.  Whisk together all-purpose and whole wheat flours, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda and salt; whisk in sunflower and pumpkin seeds.  In separate bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, brown sugar, orange rind, and egg.  Add the buttermilk and butter, whisking between each addition until combined.  Stir in flour mixture in 2 additions just until nearly combined, then stir in cranberries.  Spoon into 6 to 8 greased muffin cups, then sprinkle with oat bran, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds.  Bake in 375°F oven until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack.

The two muffins on the left front were baked in silicone cups and are noticeably paler

 

These took longer to put together than I had expected.  With three types of grains, two types of sugar, two leavening agents, and three mix-ins (plus orange zest, plus sprinkles), this is a recipe that really benefits from mise en place.  (Not my habit.  The first thing I did was melt the butter so it would be cool, but it took me so long to put all the rest of the recipe together that by the time I needed it, it had hardened again.  So I stuck it in the microwave for a couple seconds, at which point it exploded... but that's another story.) Other than the long ingredient list, though, these came together easily.

I don't know how you'd get only 6 muffins from this recipe... I even over-filled the cups.  (I do have a muffin tin with wider but shallower cups -- perhaps I could have gotten more piled up in one of those.)  I had greased only 6 of the cups in my aluminum tin, so for the other two I pulled out my silicone muffin cups.  I don't like the idea of baking in silicone, but I love the muffin cups because the muffins always pop right out and they're SO much easier to clean.  They've always seemed to bake fine, but side-by-side I noticed a big difference in the results between the silicone and the aluminum.  The silicone-baked muffins were visibly paler, both on the bottoms and the tops, and consequently were lacking the caramelized edges.  They also seemed slightly underbaked, slightly gummy.  (Perhaps it had something to do with the silicone cups not fitting fully into the aluminum, so they were halfway suspended.)  The taste and texture of the aluminum-baked muffins were far superior.  Now, would the silicone-baked muffins have improved had I left them to bake for another couple minutes?  Something to consider.  Curiously, the domes that overflowed the cups and baked against ungreased metal released easily, while the base of the muffins, within the greased cup, were a little difficult to get out.

Conclusions:  These had great flavor and texture, lightly sweet, contrasting nicely with the bright cranberries.  I wasn't big on the pepitas, more the texture than the flavor, and the sunflower seeds were lost.  I think I'd skip both next time and just use walnuts-- which would make them very similar to this Cranberry Orange Quickbread-- and maybe poppy seeds.  (I wonder if I could get some cornmeal into the recipe--- that might be tasty too.)

Recipe:  Cranberry Seed Muffins via Forgotten Bread, revised slightly from Canadian Living, Sept 2010

Note:  The original recipe by Canadian Living includes both the oat bran and the wheat bran, which would change the texture of the final product.  Otherwise the recipes are identical.