Cranberry Sourdough Muffin Tops

Hi, everyone. If you’re in the States and celebrate the holiday, in any way, I hope this past week was one of rest, good food and fellowship with loved ones.

If you’ve been following this blog for at least a year, then you’ll know that now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s about that time to start what’s become one of my favorite annual holiday traditions.

If you’re new here, I’ll explain.

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is the food, specifically baked goods. They were a huge part of my childhood growing up. I always looked forward to the absolutely delicious goodies that my mom and grandmother would make, and now that I’m older I keep that tradition going myself. I record that yearly holiday baking frenzy here on the blog, in a series called the 12 Days of Christmas.

Basically, for the last few weeks of November and the entire month of December I spend the last twelve blog posts of the year sharing twelve holiday-themed baked goods. Most are sweet, but I try to include some savory ones as well. It’s a lot of work, but it’s gotten to the point where my holiday season wouldn’t feel the same without it. Today, is Day 1 of the 12 Days of Christmas.

At the start of this year, I got into making sourdough bread for myself at home. It’s been really fun, but one of the things about it that you learn is that post-feeding(s) you have a lot of spare sourdough discard on your hands that you can either throw away, or find other uses for. I’ve shared some of those alternative uses for starter on the blog earlier throughout this year, and today, I’m sharing another.

Muffin tops are one of my favorite easy, ‘You Can’t Mess This Up’ recipes. They come together in minutes, the ingredients to make them are usually really inexpensive, and because they’re muffin ‘tops’ they taste even better than regular muffins.

However, I have added a modification at the end of the recipe for those who don’t have a muffin top pan, or just prefer regular muffins.

Stay tuned for more on the 12 Days of Christmas–there’s a LOT of delicious goodies coming your way 😉

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Cranberry Sourdough Muffin tops

Recipe Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

1 cup All purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup (227g) sourdough starter, ripe (fed) or discard
1-2 tablespoons milk*
1 large egg
4 tablespoons melted butter or 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup maple syrup or 1/2 cup molasses, or honey
2 cups fresh cranberries
Demerara sugar or coarse sparkling sugar, for sprinkling tops

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Grease the wells of a 12-cup muffin top pan.

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

In a second bowl, beat together the starter, 1 tabelspoon of. the milk, egg, melted butter, and sweetener. Blend the wet ingredients with the dry, taking about 20 seconds. Gently stir in the cranberries just until blended. If the mixture seems a little thick and pasty, you may add the extra tablespoon of milk

Fill the cups of the prepared pan; sprinkle the tops of the muffins with sugar.

Bake the muffins for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan. Don’t let them cool in the pan, or they’ll steam and the outside will become tough.

Note: These can be made as regular cranberry muffins as well. Simply increase the amount of milk to 1/4 cup.