Cranberry Sauce Muffins

Make the best use of leftover cranberry sauce and whip up these easy Cranberry Sauce Muffins! Not only are these muffins delicious, but they also whip up in one bowl!

I absolutely love having leftovers after a holiday! Bring on the turkey, stuffing and all the the other goodies! I could eat them for days and never tire of them.

The one leftover that always has me stumped though is the cranberry sauce. I like it but there always seems to be so much more than you are able to eat. Not wanting to waste food, I was inspired to put it to use in my breakfast muffins! I used one of my go-to muffin bases and swirled in cranberry sauce in the last step. Voila! A new favourite was born!

So if you are staring into your fridge wondering if you should just chuck that cranberry sauce away. Stop and whip these up instead! You will be so glad you did. And if you have plenty of sauce, make sure you also whip up a batch of my Cranberry Bars!

Cranberry Sauce Muffins

Why you should make Cranberry Sauce Muffins

  • it’s the best way to use up cranberry sauce

  • you can reduce food waste but repurposing those leftovers!

  • the muffins are easy to make

  • this recipe whips up in one bowl for easy clean up

  • they are delicious! (So delicious I have made cranberry sauce for the sole purpose of making these muffins!)
Cranberry Sauce Muffins with swirled cranberry sauce in the muffin batter

What you need to make Cranberry Sauce Muffins

  • butter, softened
  • sugar
  • brown sugar
  • eggs
  • vanilla extract
  • Greek yogurt
  • cranberry sauce
  • flour
  • baking powder
  • baking soda
  • salt
Cranberry Sauce Muffins

How to make Cranberry Sauce Muffins

  • Cream the butter and sugar together. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter, sugar and brown sugar and cream together until light and fluffy.

  • Incorporate the remaining wet ingredients. Add the eggs, vanilla and Greek yogurt and continue mixing until incorporated.

  • Add the dry ingredients. On a low setting, add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour until combined and the batter is smooth.

  • Fold in the sauce. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and gently fold in the cranberry sauce. Do not over-stir, you want a more marbleized effect.

  • Scoop and bake! Scoop the batter into your muffin tin, filling each cup 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

That’s it!

Steps for Making Cranberry Sauce Muffins
Cranberry Sauce Muffins with swirls of cranberry sauce on top

Can you freeze Cranberry Sauce Muffins?

These muffins freeze beautifully. To freeze them, allow them to cool completely and then transfer them to a freezer safe plastic bag. When you are ready to enjoy them, just thaw as many as you like!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Honestly, the main reason I even make a big batch of cranberry sauce these days is so that I have enough to make these baked beauties!

-Cathy

Cranberry Sauce Muffins made with leftover cranberry sauce

You may also like:

Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry Bars
Cranberry Orange Streusel Cake


This post was originally published on November 30, 2019 and was updated with additional information and new photographs on October 11, 2021.

Cranberry Sauce Muffins

If you try and enjoy this recipe, I would love to hear about it! Leave a rating and/or comment below to let me know what you think!

Cranberry Sauce Muffins

Cranberry Sauce Muffins

Catherine
Make the best use of leftover cranberry sauce and whip up these easy Cranberry Sauce Muffins!
5 from 6 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Servings 12 servings
Calories 193 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup butter softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
  • 3/4 cup cranberry sauce
  • 1 3/4 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven at 375F and line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter, sugar and brown sugar and cream together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla and Greek yogurt and continue mixing until incorporated.
  • On a low setting, add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour until combined and the batter is smooth.
  • Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and gently fold in the cranberry sauce. Do not over-stir, you want a more marbleized effect.
  • Scoop the batter into your muffin tin, filling each cup 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.

Nutrition

Calories: 193kcalCarbohydrates: 34gProtein: 4gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 38mgSodium: 201mgPotassium: 54mgFiber: 1gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 165IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 51mgIron: 1mg

The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.

Keyword christmas, christmas leftovers, cranberries, cranberry sauce, fall, Thanksgiving, thanksgiving leftovers, winter
Tried this recipe?Leave a star rating and comment below to let us know how it was!

11 Comments

  1. Pingback: Cranberry Sauce - Herbs & Flour

  2. Konstantina

    5 stars
    Like you, I make homemade whole berry cranberry sauce year-round. Leafing through your recipes, I spotted this one…I had enough cranberry sauce to double the recipe; house smells so intoxicating!! Hopefully, I’ll be able to freeze the other batch of muffins before I devour them 🤔 thanks for the muffins!!! My Moussaka just came out of the oven, I’m in heaven!!!

    • Herbs and Flour

      Thank you Konstantina! I often freeze muffins so that I can defrost and nibble again in the future! 🙂

  3. 5 stars
    I made these muffins for our church coffee hour tomorrow and had to try one to make sure they were alright. 😉 It was nice and moist and delicious! I know they’ll be a big hit at church. I made a huge batch of cranberry sauce just before Thanksgiving, so I had plenty and I used spelt flour because I have celiac. Thank you for this great recipe!

    • Herbs and Flour

      That makes me so happy to hear! Good to know the recipe works with spelt flour as well! 🙂

  4. 5 stars
    So very good. Thank you I finally have a recipe that everyone loves and I get rid of leftover cranberry sauce which I always seem to make too much.

  5. Connie Marina Fritsche

    Hi, I doubled the recipe and the dough was not soft but more thick. Did I add too much flour? From your picture they looked more moist.

    • Herbs and Flour

      The consistency should be similar to a typical muffin batter. It isn’t runny but neither is it too thick and hard to stir. If its thick and difficult to stir in the cranberry sauce, I think you may have added too much flour.

  6. Jeannie

    5 stars
    I, too, was looking for a recipe to use for our church breakfast ministry. I used a mixture of my home canned cranberry sauce and home canned cranberry butter. One muffin recipe made 48 miniature muffins. After sampling, this recipe is definitely a keeper! The muffins are just perfect the way they are but I may try adding a lemon drizzle in the future.

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