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Paleo Cranberry Muffins are wonderful year round, using fresh or frozen cranberries. Enjoy for a special breakfast treat, with afternoon tea or alongside any meal, including soup. Sweet, tart and special + nutrient-dense, Paleo AIP Cranberry Muffins have a tender crumb and the perfect texture — hard to believe they’re egg-free. This recipe is Paleo, AIP, Gluten-free, as well as nut-free and dairy-free.
How to make Paleo AIP Cranberry Muffins
Paleo Cranberry Muffins are a basic recipe to make: Simply mix the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and stir together. Then bake.
Once baked, cool the muffins or eat warm.
Variations
If you wish, accent the batter with orange rind or orange oil.
Optionally, for a special coffeecake feel, top the batter with crumb topping.
Storage
You can keep muffins on the counter, sealed, for one day. If eating within a few days, just wrap and refrigerate.
For long term storage, freeze muffins in a sealed container for up to 3 months. To defrost, simply leave out at room temp for several hours or overnight.
Ingredients
The dry ingredients in Paleo AIP Cranberry Muffins are cassava flour, coconut flour, collagen, gelatin, coconut sugar, baking soda and sea salt.
Wet ingredients are coconut oil, coconut milk, water, apple cider vinegar and the cranberries.
My use of collagen in muffins
I often get questions about my use of collagen in recipes, and some wonder if the recipe will turn out without it. I’m not sure about Paleo Cranberry Muffins without the collagen, but recipes do sometimes turn out fine when it’s omitted — although it’s better not to change AIP baking recipes. These muffins have 11 grams of protein each! I add the collagen because I really like getting extra amino acids in my diet (for rebuilding tissue and other protein needs the body has) and also because collagen does contribute a nice touch to the texture of muffins.
Are Paleo Cranberry Muffins healthy
Paleo AIP Cranberry Muffins are healthy in one respect: They’re nutrient-dense. They contain lots of great complex carbs, fiber, good fats, as well as protein.
But muffins are still a dessert-like treat because they contain concentrated sweetener. I think it’s fine to enjoy a muffin a day, as long as your savory main dish is the focus — lots of well-sourced protein, fats and fiber.
Muffins go great alongside breakfast meats, soups at lunch or dinner, and are also good for snacking, especially if you’ve got some beef jerky or something similar to go alongside.
Paleo Cranberry Muffins (AIP, GF)
Equipment
- oven
- muffin pan
Ingredients
- ¾ cup cassava flour Otto's or Bob's brands (other brands will not work because they are too starchy)
- ⅓ cup coconut oil or lard, melted and cooled slightly
- ⅓ cup coconut milk or non-dairy milk of choice
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar or maple sugar
- ¼ cup collagen see link and DISCOUNT code below in Recipe Notes
- 3 Tablespoons coconut flour
- 3 Tablespoons water
- 1 Tablespoon gelatin see link and DISCOUNT code below in Recipe Notes
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda sifted
- ½ teaspoon orange oil optional; or 2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup cranberries frozen or fresh, chopped roughly
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin pan with liners or paper muffin cups (a lot of muffin cups stick, so spray with coconut oil spray, as needed). Set aside.
- In large bowl, combine dry ingredients: cassava flour, coconut sugar, collagen, coconut flour, gelatin, baking soda and sea salt.
- In medium bowl, combine wet ingredients: fat of choice, coconut milk, water and apple cider vinegar. (If you wish to add an orange flavor to your muffins, include the orange oil with this step.)
- Add wet ingredients, including cranberries, to dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- Fill prepared muffin pan with batter. (See Crumb Topping option below, if desired, in recipe Notes.) If not using Crumb Topping: Wet your fingers with water to pat batter together and smooth the tops of the muffins. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 minutes for 4 large muffins or 20 minutes for 6 smaller muffins.
Notes
You can find collagen peptides HERE. (Enter code BEAUTIFUL10 at checkout for 10% off your order.)
You can find grass-fed and pesticide-free gelatin HERE. (Enter code BEAUTIFUL10 at checkout for 10% off your order.)
Coconut sugar HERE.
Optional Crumb Topping
INGREDIENTS- 1 cup cassava flour
- ½ cup lard or palm shortening (room temperature)
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup ice water
- ½ teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- In bowl of food processor (or use a pastry cutter and large bowl), combine cassava flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and sea salt.
- Add fat of choice, and pulse to combine, until small clumps form.
- Sprinkle ice water over all, and pulse again to form crumb topping. (Do not over-mix or topping will clump together and form a dough.)
- Top muffins with crumble, pressing it into the batter slightly. (Reserve any extra in a jar in the freezer or fridge for your next batch.) Bake as instructed above.
Nutrition
Wanda says
I made these with almond flour and Lakanto sweetener, perfect
Megan says
Wow, great, Wanda, thank you for sharing! 🙂
Lynda says
Can you. Substitute anything for the collegen?
Megan says
Hi Lynda, I write about collagen and this question in the post a bit. It is a unique ingredient used to affect the texture (it adds a nice tender cakey element) and also to add amino acids (protein). The muffins may be fine just omitting it, but I haven’t tried it. There is no substitution for it.
komal says
can i skip/substitute gelatin?
Megan says
Hi Komal, unfortunately, no on skipping it. Gelatin stands in place of the eggs in the recipe, because the muffins are egg-free. You might be able to sub flax eggs or use agar-agar, but I haven’t done it to be able to give you the specs.
Eileen says
Thanks for this great recipe. These are amongst the best AIP muffins that I have tried, and there have been many! Great flavor, texture, and they don’t fall apart. I used Anthony’s Cassava Flour with excellent result. Instead of making the topping I sprinkled with shredded, unsweetened coconut. I will definitely be making these again!
Megan says
Great, Eileen! SO glad, and thanks so much for sharing your results AND that Anthony’s worked well in this recipe. 🙂
Wanda says
I believe I can use eggs instead of gelatin. How many should I use?
Megan says
Hi Wanda, this recipe hasn’t been tested with eggs. Even though you can eat eggs now, for this recipe, I’d keep it the same because it’s perfect as-is. 🙂
Katie says
I’m really excited to try these, but can’t find fresh or frozen cranberries What would be the conversion for unsweetened dried cranberries?
Megan says
Hi Katie, I would probably use 1/3 cup of dried cranberries. Enjoy!! 🙂
Nancy says
My gosh, I was so excited to try these when I saw the recipe! But they didn’t turn out at all like the pictures above. The dough was super dry and crumbly, despite following the recipe to the letter. So I added a little more coconut milk (ie 2-3 T). Then I decided to test them by baking just 2 small ones. It took at least 25 minutes and the insides were pure wet goo! So I went ahead and baked the rest of them (no way I could only make 6 large out of this dough, because the crumbly dough was spilling over the sides of the containers. I made 9 total), but they all were wet and gooey inside, even after adding on an additional 10 minutes to the 25 minute baking time. I’m so disappointed, and am afraid to try it again, considering how expensive Otto’s cassava flour is. What did I do wrong?
Megan says
Hi Nancy, I can’t say without seeing your ingredients and watching your process in your kitchen with you. I do make this recipe often, with different fruits, too, so I know it works. I will say, do not change egg-free recipes by adding more liquid; that will never go well. It would have been better to bake the dough that seemed too crumbly, and you’d have seen the results of the actual recipe. But by adding too much liquid, you created a wet gooey result.
Nancy says
Thank you Megan. The next time I try them (or a similar muffin recipe)I will not add any extra liquid! I am wondering if the crumbly texture is the norm for this batter, and if so, it would be helpful to put this into the recipe notes. My thinking, when I added the extra coconut milk, was that perhaps our dry climate (I’m in Alberta) was to blame for the drier texture as that has happened before with other recipes, and more liquid is needed.
Megan says
Happy to help, and I’m glad we seemed to get at one of the issues. Your mention of your climate is revealing, too, as it may affect your egg-free baking. Normally, this recipe is not crumbly, but all of my AIP recipes have very thick batter, sometimes even more dough-like, and I do try to always mention that. So I think your climate may have just brought that up a notch, and I don’t think adding more liquid is the solution in this case. Probably in your case, it would be wise to look at the whole egg-free recipe and assess all of the ingredients to recreate the right ratios with your climate in mind.
Nancy says
Thank you. I will play around a little with it, though I’m not sure what tinkering could change the texture from too dry as a dough, but wet as a finished product, to more like the end result I see illustrated in the recipe. The dough was good until I added the frozen cranberries. That’s when it seized up and became crumbly.
Megan says
You keep giving me new clues. 🙂 That was it: the berries simply froze the dough, and it should have cooked out fine.
Nancy says
So next time I will thaw the berries first!
Megan says
Sounds good, Nancy!
Nancy says
Is it possible to soak the batter for this recipe (ie overnight), to make it easier to digest?
Megan says
Hi Nancy, yes. You could replace 2 Tablespoons of the water with a non-dairy whey or other probiotic liquid. Hold out the baking soda if you wish until shortly before baking, and then after fermentation, stir it into the final T of water, and mix it all together. 🙂 I assume from your question that you’ve seen other recipes on my blog where I do this, so you can follow more exact directions, but if not, let me know, and I can link to one.
Nancy says
Thank you, yes I have made the snickerdoodles this way as per your instructions. I think it is a great way to increase the nutrition and to break down the anti-nutrients.
Megan says
Great, Nancy!