Cranberry Sauce Muffins

I like taking cranberry sauce and turning it on its ear, mixing it with mushrooms or rice or, in this case, muffins.  Tasty muffins.

Take one 12 oz package fresh cranberries.  Wash and pick them over, removing crushed or bad ones. Take a four-cup liquid measure and add 1.5 cups pomegranate juice and 1/4 cup Wine 4 All Seasons Cranberry Snow wine. Top off to 4 cups with water, add to medium-large saucepan. Add 1 tbsp Mary Michelle blueberry wine. Add 1 cup monkfruit sugar, 1 tbsp powdered sugar and 2 tbsp brown sugar. Bring to boil, stir to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, 1.5 tsp orange peel granules, 1/2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon, 1/2 tsp Saigon cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cassia cinnamon, 3/4 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tbsp wildflower honey, and 1 cup frozen wild blueberries.  Return to boil.  Reduce heat to 2, cover and simmer for 12 minutes or until cranberries burst.

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Take 2 regular 12 count muffin pans and grease with corn oil or substitute.

In large mixing bowl, place one 16 oz box King Arthur Flour gluten-free muffin mix, 2 tbsp Ener-G egg replacer, 1 tbsp apple pectin, and 1 tbsp baking powder.  Lightly mix together dry ingredients.  Once cranberries are done, strain so that liquids go into a bowl; bounce strainer a bit to get out more of liquids and move pulp into second bowl.  Pour bowl into 4 cup liquid measure, and from there fill a second liquid measure to 1.25 cups (save the remainder of the liquid for another recipe).  Add the 1.25 cups of liquid to bowl along with 7 tbsp corn oil (or substitute) and whisk together well.  Stir in fruit pulp.  Spoon into muffin tins. Makes about 17-18 muffins. Bake for 22 minutes.

I could have done the muffins from scratch, but I was in a rush and King Arthur Flour does some good mixes.  I tend to mixes as the base you can use to make what you want, and given how touchy gluten-free egg-free dairy-free baking can be, I don't mind getting a little help sometimes.

  
   

Bowl of Cranberries 1
Cranberry Sauce Muffins 1
Cranberry Sauce Muffin 1
Cranberry Sauce Muffin 3
Cranberry Sauce Muffin 3a

Update:  I made another batch of these slightly differently; added two packets of tru orange when I put in the liquids in the first stage (sauce stage), and moved the honey to the second stage (muffins) along with 1 tsp of gluten-free vanilla extract.  Came out with a nice citrus undertone.