Cranberry Sauce Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup whole berry cranberry sauce*
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon zest of a lemon, lime, orange or tangerine
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line or grease and flour one 12 well muffin tin. In a large bowl, mix together the egg, oil, buttermilk, and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, oatmeal, salt, ginger, zest, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir into the wet ingredients. Spoon 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter in 12 muffin wells. Top with 1 teaspoon cranberry sauce. Evenly divide the remaining batter among the wells, making sure the cranberry sauce is fully covered. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the center muffin comes out clean or with just a hint of cranberry sauce. Cool on a wire rack, serve.


*Use your own favorite or make one of my versions: apple cider cranberry sauce, classic cranberry sauce, cranberry-tangerine sauce or ginger lime spiked cranberry sauce.

My thoughts:

After Thanksgiving the majority of searches that bring people to Coconut & Lime are "what to do with leftovers" related. While cranberry sauce is fine on a leftover turkey sandwich, some times there is just too much leftover. Two years ago I made a delicious cranberry ribbon cake with leftover sauce that remains to this day to be pretty much my favorite of all the cake recipes I've created. This year I thought I might be a little desserted out after Thanksgiving so I went a different way: breakfast. These muffins are super quick to make and very satisfying. As an added bonus? They freeze well.