D47: Cranberries? Can-berries!

Bub's been waking more during the night recently and today's lethargy had me thinking I might extend my break an extra day.  But then I went and made cranberry muffins! :D

We received a pack of dried cranberries (craisins?) for Christmas.  I've never worked with cranberries before, even though I've enjoyed some official Craisin.  I've been a bit shy about using them.  I figured muffins must surely be the safest and friendliest way to break ground with a new fruit.

These muffins were created using the Basic Muffins secipe in the AWW Home Library series Country Cooking cookbook.  (My mum actually gave this one to me - no associated guilt! Yay!)  My misgivings about using oil in baking were muffled: "Who can be bothered with creaming butter at this hour?!" said the silver lining.  I followed the blueberry variation and found it to be a terribly easy recipe - sift, stir, stir, spoon out, sprinkle, spoon out again, rub, sprinkle again, bake.

I attempted to reconstitute the cranberries but because they were all broken no puffy sultana-effect was possible.  Still, it helped to soak them in cold water beforehand.  I soaked a lot of cranberries... best to round up when trying to estimate 200g of reconstituted anything, I say! 

Spooned, sprinkled, and spoon & 'sprinkle' some more

The last thing to do is rub some flour, brown sugar and butter to a 'breadcrumb' texture and sprinkle it over the muffins.  In this variation, the berries go on top too.   Somewhere in there I measured too much butter, or not enough flour, or it's just plain too hot in here, coz there was no breadcrumbing to be had with this part.  I mashed it all up with half the berries so that the 'sprinkling' would be more efficient, and divisible, and hoped for the best.

The reconstituted cranberries and the 'breadcrumbed' topping.  O_o

I was off settling Bub when the first batch came out and I didn't realise that the clump of 'crumble' would appear wet and spongey on top.  When Hub answered the timer he though they were underdone, so that's why there is a dark brown batch and a lighter brown batch.  They're both terribly yummy though!  The berries have a nice tang, like raisins or dried muscatels.  I may have a need to use the other half of the pack soon enough! :D