These are easy low-carb, gluten-free, keto cranberry orange muffins which are moist and bursting with flavours.
I’ve included chopped walnuts and orange rind to make them a festive Keto Christmas recipe for the holidays.
What I love about my Keto Cranberry Orange Muffins is that they are versatile so you can adapt the muffin to your tastes.
Keto Cranberry Orange Muffins With Walnuts- Blender Muffins
Since I don’t have much time in the mornings before work I thrive on grab-and-go foods such as these Keto Cranberry Orange Muffins.
Keto Cranberry Orange Muffins are perfect for Thanksgiving, New Years’, and as part of your Keto Christmas recipes list.
History Of Cranberries In Canada
I did not realize how much I didn’t know about cranberries until I started to research them.
Although most people won’t eat raw cranberries there are so many cranberry recipes available from bread, cookies, bars, and muffins.
Like I did with the fresh cranberries that I picked up from Zehrs for only $0.24 a bag I needed to learn everything I could about them.
Cranberry Fun Facts
Here are some fun cranberry facts before we get into the Keto Cranberry Orange Muffin recipe.
- Cranberries are harvested in water because it makes picking easier. Cranberry vines form a dense ground cover. Flooding floats the cranberries out of the tangled vines, making them easier to pick.
- Each grain of pollen a bee brings to the blossom means another seed in the cranberry.
- Cranberries need at least 20 seeds to be viable.
- Once called crane berries by early settlers the cranberry was a significant source of food back then.
- The blossom head resembled a crane hence the name crane berries later called cranberries – Source Muskoka Lakes Farm and Winery
- Cranberries are a source of Vitamin C. One cup (250 mL) contains 46 calories.
- The fruit was first grown commercially in Canada on the East coast and in Newfoundland. Later, large plantings were started in British Columbia.
- Cranberries in North America are available during September, October, November. –Foodland Ontario
- Cranberries are primarily made up of carbs and fiber. They also boast several vitamins and minerals, including manganese, copper, and vitamins C, E, and K1. Keep in mind that cranberry juice has almost no fiber. – Source: Cranberries 101
Variations Of Keto Cranberry Orange Muffins
You don’t have to stick with cranberry orange muffins because you can customize them any way you like.
Once you have the base recipe you’re free to play around with flavours and textures that fit your preference.
- Cranberry and White Chocolate Muffins (use sugar-free white chocolate Chips or if not Keto use white chocolate chips)
- Keto Cranberry Muffins with Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips
- Orange and Sugar-free Chocolate Chips and Cranberry Muffins
- Keto Cranberry Muffins with chopped pecans or walnuts
- Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Muffins with Sugar-free white icing drizzle
- Cranberry Lemon Muffins
- Lemon, Blueberry, Cranberry Keto Muffins
Cranberry Nutrition Facts
Are cranberries low in carbs?
They sure are and should be used far often than they are in keto recipes.
The main nutrients in 1 cup (100 grams) of raw, unsweetened cranberries are (1Trusted Source):
- Calories: 46
- Water 87%
- Protein 0.4 grams
- Carbs 12.2 grams
- Sugar 4 grams
- Fiber 4.6 grams
- Fat: 0.1 grams
So for the keto enthusiasts that means for every cup of raw cranberries, you would calculate 12.2 grams of carbs – 4.6 grams of Fibre.
Your total carb count for 1 cup of raw cranberries would be 7.6 net carbs per cup raw.
That’s pretty darn good considering the multiple other benefits that cranberries offer consumers of this fruit.
Raw Cranberries vs. Homemade Keto Cranberry Jam In The Blender Muffins
You do not have to make the sugar-free cranberry jam for this recipe although I had extra cranberries so I used them up.
Honestly, the extra bit of jam on top with the butter is outstanding but they are great as is without any toppings.
Another option is to use the sugar-free cranberry jam in the middle of the muffins or swirl it throughout the batter.
You do not have to use whole raw cranberries in this recipe if you don’t care for them in their natural form.
For some of the blender muffins, I added a bit of the muffin mixture, a spoonful of keto cranberry jam than more muffin mix.
They turned out just as well comparable to a muffin I remember eating at Tim Hortons that included a jam in the middle.
How To Make Sugar-Free Cranberry Jam
In a pot add 1 cup of raw cranberries, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/3 cup of Sukrin Gold Brown Sugar (sugar-free), 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tsp xanthan gum, and 1/3 cup of cold water.
On medium heat stir the mixture until the cranberries soften up and mash them gently with a fork and stir into a lovely cranberry jam.
It’s that easy and takes about 10 minutes.
Let the cranberry jam cool and use it however you like.
Store it in a container and put it straight into the refrigerator and use it on toast or even as a substitute for cranberry sauce.
How To Make Keto Cranberry Orange Muffins In A Blender
A printable version of this recipe is below.
- Oven 350 degrees
- 12 cup muffin baking pan with silicone muffin tray or 12 parchment paper muffin liners
- Tin-foil just in case you need to protect the top of the muffins from browning too fast
Blender muffins are easy to make but you can also use your food processor, stand mixer, or the old-fashioned way, by hand.
Muffins are what I like to call recipes that work no matter what you do to them, at least in my experiences.
This recipe will yield 12 Keto cranberry orange muffins.
How To Make A Blender Muffin
Blend the wet ingredients first until light and fluffy, 20 seconds in your blender.
- 4 large grade A or free-range eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese
- 1/2 cup of Sukrin Gold or your choice of Keto sweetener but run it through the coffee grinder or buy the icing sugar sweetener as it tends to blend better when baking.
- 1 tablespoon sugar-free marmalade or 2 teaspoons of orange rind around 1 net carb or less.
- The overall net carbs will be less if you use just the orange peel rather than the sugar-free marmalade.
- (I used 2 teaspoons of orange rind which equals where the marmalade is 5 net carbs for one tablespoon.
Related: Orange peel nutrition
Follow that with the dry ingredients, blend until combined.
- 2 cups ground almond flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp pink Himalayan salt
Finally, fold in the remaining ingredients.
- 1 cup raw or frozen cranberries
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts ( I used walnuts but you can use pecans or almonds as well)
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 watching the tops don’t brown too fast.
If yes, add tin foil over the top of the muffin tray to prevent further browning.
Use the toothpick method to check if the muffin is fully baked by sticking a toothpick through the centre of a muffin.
If the toothpick comes out clean your muffin is done.
Remove from oven and let cool before serving unless you like your keto muffins warm.
As mentioned, you may notice the tops of your keto cranberry orange muffins may brown quickly.
What I do is cover them with a sheet of tinfoil for the remainder of the baking process.
I find whenever I use nut flours this happens but it does not affect the overall taste and texture of the keto muffin recipes.
As you can see we cut one of the muffins open while they were warm, added butter and a small spoonful of sugar-free keto cranberry jam.
Awesome is all I have to say.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- If you want to make the sugar-free cranberry jam please see the recipe in the blog post above.
- Wet Ingredients
- 4 large grade A or free-range eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla
- 1 tsp almond extract
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ½ cup Sukrin Gold or Your Choice Of keto Sweetener
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese
- 2 teaspoons of orange rind or 1 tbsp sugar-marmalade
- Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups ground almond flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp pink Himalayan salt
- Fold in
- 1 cup raw or frozen cranberries
- ½ cup chopped nuts ( I used walnuts but you can use pecans or almonds as well)
- Blend the wet ingredients first until light and fluffy, 20 seconds in your blender.
- Follow that with the dry ingredients, blend until combined
- Finally, fold in the remaining ingredients.
- Fill 12 parchment-lined muffin tins or a silicone baking pan to the top
- Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 watching the tops don't brown too fast.
- If yes, add tin foil over the top of the muffin tray to prevent further browning.
- Remove from oven and let cool before serving unless you like your keto muffins warm.
Once baked let your muffins cool and store them in an airtight container and freezer or eat them up with-in a few days.
I keep my keto muffins in a container that sits on the counter so we can grab one when we are running out the door.
Let me know what you think in the comments below if you try my recipe.
Mr.CBB
Nutrition: Each muffin made with orange rind is 4.6 net carbs.
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