Healthy Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

These Cranberry Pumpkin muffins are moist and delicious.  There’s no worries or guilt here, because I converted this recipe to be HEALTHY enough to eat for Breakfast!
And they still turned out yummy & addictive. YEAH!!!

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED

dry ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup old fashion oats
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup sweetened dried, cranberries
• 1/4 cup golden raisins

wet ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup healthy egg substitute or 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all natural applesauce or canola oil
• 1/4 cup orange juice or water

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.  Grease and flour 12 count muffin pan.

FIRST! Baking tip for the dried cranberries & raisins.
Place the cranberries and raisins in a microwave safe bowl and cover with warm water.  Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute.  This is a speedy way to rehydrate the dried fruit. Drain off the water from the dried fruit.  The rehydrated fruit won’t burn when it’s exposed at the top of the baked item.

Now back to mixing it up.  In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, including the pecans, rehydated cranberries and raisins.  Mix well.

In a small bowl, stir together all the wet ingredients.

Always adding the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, use a rubber spatula and fold the wet into the dry ingredients.  Do not over mix here.  Go slowly allowing the flour a chance to absorb the moisture. Make sure all the flour is moisten.

Use either a 2 inch scooper or a large spoon to fill the muffin pan.  I filled each muffin cup to the top.  These are dense muffins so you can sorta heap the batter.

BAKE for 18-20 minutes.

Store the muffins just like you would Banana Bread, on a plate wrapped with cellophane,  or in a resealable storage bag.  They will keep well out on the counter in cool temperatures for at least three days.  That’s how long they lasted at my house.  I had the last one for breakfast this morning and it was better than the first day.