Cranberry Orange Pulp Muffins is a healthy breakfast recipe that uses fresh pulp, creating a flavorful, sweet, and fiber filled treat.
There is something so perfect about cranberry orange muffins with the sweet, tangy, and nutty flavors coming together.
Theses flavors remind me of the winter holidays, but this is a recipe you’ll want to have year round!
No juicer required for this recipe- just a nut milk bag to make your juice! This recipe is easily made without any expensive equipment- now that you can juice easily- let’s reuse that pulp for a healthy and ultra-tasty recipe!
What can be better than a healthy, delicious, and zero waste recipe?!
Looking for Other Vegan Muffin Recipes?
Try these floral yet fruity Blackberry Lavender Muffins!
Or maybe these Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins are more your speed?
What Type of Oranges For these Muffins?
These muffins are best with flavorful mandarin oranges however they will also work with Navel or whatever your favorite variety is!
To Make Homemade Orange Juice- Without a Juicer
To make Cranberry Orange Pulp Muffins you need a blender, a nut milk bag (I’ve found the thin fabric bags bulk bags from Sprouts totally works as a nut milk bag!), some bowls, and a muffin tin.
You can also use a juicer if you have one!
Making the juice is easy, but if you are using mandarin oranges, peeling can require some patience!
To make two glasses of orange juice it takes 12 mandarin oranges! That’s a lot of peeling, but there is nothing better compared to freshly made orange juice.
To use a navel orange you’ll want to use about 5-6 oranges. It really varies on the size of the orange on how many you’ll need. The goal is to get 2 cups worth of orange pulp!
If you try it out with another citrus fruit like grapefruit please comment below and share how it turned out!
Blend up the peeled oranges with 1/2 cup water for 3-5 minutes or until it is smooth. Then you’ll strain it with your nut milk bag.
This juice will be powerful in flavor! Consider adding a bit of water to help dilute the flavor if you find it too strong.
Update August 2023
I had a few comments saying their muffins where bitter because they used bitter oranges.
Before proceeding with this recipe taste test your fruit to ensure they are sweet!
Do not use grapefruit or bitter fruit for this recipe or you will have bitter muffins.
If your fruit juice is bitter, don’t use the pulp for the muffins!
If you must, you could try to remedy it by adding more sugar, add as much sugar as you need to remove the bitterness.
I recommend only using sweet fruit, so you don’t have to add so much sugar.
Other Add Ins
This recipe is the best with fresh cranberries, it creates nice juicy spots in the muffins. In a pinch, dried cranberries can work, but they’ll leave you with a less desirable texture. If you don’t like cranberries try this recipe with chopped up strawberries or blueberries!
I would again, recommend you use fresh fruit.
One last fun option is to add white chocolate to this!
For decoration I added a simple glaze to these muffins. The sweet glaze adds a nice contrast to the sour cranberries, however it is still delightful without it. Another option would be to do a streusel topping for the muffins like in Peach Streusel Recipe.
If you are into being more eco friendly be sure to check out my post on how to eat seasonally in Colorado (or where ever you may be!)
Cranberry Orange Pulp Muffins and Homemade Orange Juice- No Juicer Required!
Ingredients
- 12 Mandarin Oranges 5-7 Navel Oranges Depending on Size (enough to make 2 cups of orange pulp)
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1/2 cup Vegan Butter Or Coconut Oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 1/2 cup Fresh Cranberries
Instructions
- Peel your oranges and add the blender with the 1/2 cup waterBlend on high until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a nut milk bag and squeeze the juice out over a large bowl. Straining over a large bowl helps prevent mess.
- Set aside your juice for your drinking enjoyment and set aside your pulp for future steps
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Cream your butter with sugar for 2 minutes using an electric mixer to make it light and fluffy
- Add orange pulp and vanilla, and cream for one minute- set aside
- In a large bowl sift in 2 cups of flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg
- Add your orange cream mixture and chopped cranberries to the dry ingredients and fold to mix, only to combine. Over mixing will make muffins tough and gummy.
- Bake for 18-20 mins, until a toothpick comes out clean of the center
- Optional! Allow to cool fully and add your choice of glaze, Try a mixture of 1/3 cup powdered sugar, 1 tbs orange juice, 1 tsp rum
Nutrition
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Will Dried cranberries work?
Dried cranberries will work, but it might lead to a drier muffin. Frozen or fresh cranberries will add moist pockets throughout the muffin that might be lacking with dried. I bet the chewiness of the dried could be fun- if you try it would you report back?
Made these with Cherries instead. Delicious
This recipe is perfect for me to use up my leftover orange pulp. Can I substitute all purpose flour with almond or spelt flour instead?
Thank you!
I haven’t used spelt flour so I can’t say whether that would work. I wouldn’t 100% replace the flour with almond flour since that will impact how the muffins rise and the overall texture. You could mix in some almond flour for the extra health benefits, but I wouldn’t the all purpose flour completely.
Thank you! I will try your suggestion.
Hello, I’m so sorry but my muffins were so bitter. The pulp I had from a juicer and the bitter pulp just took over in taste and I couldn’t counteract it. It also wasn’t clear in the instructions until the end that the dry and wet were separate bowls.
I really wanted to this work but I think this recipe needs to have more information around dealing with bitter pulp from a juicer.
Thanks
I’ve never encountered bitter oranges before! Did you use grapefruit instead of oranges? The pulp should have added sweetness to the whole recipe. If your pulp is bitter you will need to adjust the sugar and taste the batter before you bake it to make sure it is sweetened to your liking
I made these last night and just had the exact came problem. They were so bitter we couldn’t eat them…even my dog took a bite and then backed away from the muffin looking at me suspiciously 😂 I think we must have ended up with some very bitter oranges, as the juice we made from them was also quite acidic in its flavour, not very sweet. I’m wondering if for me this issue was compounded by subbing the sugar for honey. Perhaps that reacted poorly with the bitter pulp?
Honey shouldn’t react to the oranges in that way… If your juice was bitter then your orange pulp will also be bitter. Where the oranges you used ripe enough? There shouldn’t be any green on your oranges when you juice them!
I can update the recipe to taste test the oranges before using to ensure they aren’t bitter. If they are bitter, I either wouldn’t use them or increase the sugar in the recipe to taste.