Cranberry Orange Muffins

(Mentioned in Episode 7 of “A Woman with a Very Large Knife,” which you can find in the podcast section.)

The ticket to this one is to soak the cranberries in the OJ ahead of time. Just plop those things into the juice, preheat the oven, and throw the dry ingredients together. The cranberries should be ready by the time you’ve done that. I forgot to put the zest in – doh! – but the muffins were just fine without that. So if you don’t have an actual orange around, don’t sweat it. As the superhero costume designer says in The Incredibles, “Wewax…”

Ingredients:

•1 cup of dried sweetened cranberries
•3/4 cup of orange juice
•2 cups of flour
•3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 orange, zested

Instructions:

Soak the cranberries in the OJ.
Preheat oven to to 350.
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
In a large bowl, mix up one egg, the vegetable oil, the OJ and cranberries and zest until it’s well combined.
Blend the dry ingredients into the wet, a little at a time until just combined.
Put little paper muffin cups into muffin tins and spoon in. If you don’t have muffin cups, grease the tin with shortening. Don’t overfill the cups – about 2/3 full is fine.
Bake for about 24 minutes.