Cranberry Apple Pumpkin Muffins
After making these pumpkin cranberry muffins a couple weeks ago, Hubby said I didn’t need to ever try another muffin recipe again. He said they were the best I had ever made and he could eat them forever. Now, I’ve made quite a few different muffin recipes. And for anyone who knows me in real life, they know that I don’t just stop trying new recipes. It’s just not my thing. It annoys my family sometimes when they ask me to make something I’ve already made and I get all hesitant because I’ve already tried the recipe. Don’t get me wrong, some recipes I do repeat, but not so much for baked goods…
When I gave Hubby one of these muffins to try, he first thought it was a repeat of the pumpkin cranberry muffin. When I told him it was a new recipe, he seemed apprehensive. But I can say without any hesitation that these are much better (in my opinion) than the pumpkin ones of a few weeks ago. These muffins add a few extra flavors and textures. I love the different textures from the apples, cranberries, and nuts in the muffins. And they’re quite colorful!
I ended up using walnuts and pecans because that is what I had on hand. This is the type of recipe that you can adapt to fit your pantry. I used Granny Smith apples and next time I’ll be sure to chop them a bit smaller. I really enjoyed the bites with the fresh cranberries in them. The small punch of tartness is just great. As always, I doubled the recipe so that I would have muffins to freeze for us.
Cranberry Apple Pumpkin Muffins
Yield: ~20 muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour - I used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. light brown sugar
1/2 can (or 7.5 oz) pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. applesauce
1/4 c. milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium apple peeled, cored, and diced
1 c. fresh cranberries
1 c. chopped pecans - I used 1/2 pecans and 1/2 walnuts
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin pans.
In large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and whisk to combine.
In another large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla and stir to combine well.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just barely blended. Fold in apples, cranberries and pecans.
Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for ~30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes.
Recipe adapted from Good Things Catered
Check out my week of Cranberries here.












I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 






These are so adorable! A friend once made me margarita cupcakes for a birthday, but I love the sound of all the coconut.
I love this cupcakes week!!!!! And even Pina-colada cupcakes…..ciao, Flavia
these look incredible! I am LOVING cupcake week!
These make me crave a warm summer day.
This sounds like a fun, summery cupcake recipe! Love it!
Mmm these look awesome! But where’s the rum?
Tell me about it! I’m not excited about the rain/snow we’re supposed to get tonight and tomorrow.
Good point! They have the flavors of a pina colada without the alcohol. If you wanted to add some rum, I’d throw it into the filling.
I’d like one of these cupcakes along with a pina colada on the beach!
I’ve really been into “booze” cupcake lately and yours looks fantastic! Perfect for a luau or a summer pool party!
Those are truly beautiful cupcakes! I love Pina Coladas and I love cupcakes so…
These are so beautiful! Eating one of these would bring me back to Hawaii 🙂
Ooohhh Hawaii sounds awesome right about now. I’ve never been.
oh my gosh, those look adorable, and i love the flavor combo, too!!
Very nice! May I ask how you set the background for your cupcake pics? The solid colors really bring attention to the cupcakes themselves.
For the majority of my cupcakes, I use a piece 12×12 scrap-booking paper for my backgrounds. I have a big stack of a variety of colors and patterns.
Thank you 🙂 .
I love the garnishes on the top, they looke exactly like little poolside drinks. I have been wanting to try a cocktail-like cake since I went to “cupcake happy hour” at Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square. Have you ever been there? Because if you haven’t you must go and try their mojito!
I have been to Kickass before during the Cupcake Crawl I hosted a couple years ago. In fact, we even tasted the mojito cupcake while we were there.
Such creative finishing touches to a perfectly delightful cupcake.