Wonderful sweet-tart cranberry sauce infuses these easy, whole grain, dairy-free muffins with delicious flavor and the perfect amount of moisture. I discovered a recipe for cranberry sauce muffins just before the holidays, many years ago, on Serious Eats. And I snatched up all of the leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce from the family meal just so I could make it!
Festive Cranberry Sauce Muffins Made Dairy-Free & Wholesome
I did end up making a few modifications, including adapting the recipe to be dairy-free and purely whole wheat. The end result was flavorful and still perfectly tender.
You can use store-bought or homemade cranberry sauce to make these dairy-free cranberry sauce muffins. In fact, you can buy a can just to make these boisterous baked goods on any old day – it doesn’t have to be from leftovers! We’ve even made these as festive muffins to enjoy on Thanksgiving morning.
I’ve never met a can of cranberry sauce that contained dairy. But you never know, one could exist! Always check the label for ingredients and contact the company about their manufacturing processes if potential cross-contamination is a concern.
Homemade cranberry sauce is also quite easy, and it allows you to infuse more flavors. For example, you can enjoy Pineapple Cranberry muffins, Cranberry Orange muffins, or Cranberry Spice muffins.
Special Diet Notes: Cranberry Sauce Muffins
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, and vegetarian.
For vegan cranberry sauce muffins, use one of my egg substitute options. This recipe is quite forgiving for egg-free needs.
- 1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour, white wheat flour, or all-purpose flour
- 1 cup rolled or quick oats
- ½ cup firmly-packed brown sugar (can sub coconut sugar for less sweet)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground ginger or cinnamon
- 1½ cups leftover cranberry sauce (roughly a 14-ounce can)
- ½ cup unsweetened dairy-free milk beverage
- ¼ cup oil (your favorite one for baking)
- 1 egg or your favorite egg substitute (for vegan)
- Preheat your oven oven to 400°F and grease or line 14 muffin cups with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spice.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cranberry sauce, milk beverage, oil, and egg until well combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined. A few lumps remaining are okay; do not overmix.
- Divide the batter between your prepared muffin cups.
- Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until they take on a light brown hue and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin (strategically dodging any remaining whole cranberries) comes out clean.
Deliciously Easy Cranberry Sauce Recipes for All
Kid-Approved Pineapple Cranberry Sauce
Slow Cooker Cranberry-Orange Sauce
Quick & Easy Spiced Cranberry Sauce
18 Comments
Delicious! The cranberry sauce brightens the flavor of the muffins so much more than dried cranberries do and I was so happy to use up the leftover cranberry sauce that was sitting in the fridge. Loved how you can sub out whole wheat and eggs included in the recipe and it works well. I added pecans sub coconut cream for the oil and all that deliciousness came together. The muffins are disappearing fast. Won’t be freezing any from this batch. Thanks so much for sharing.
That’s wonderful! So glad the recipe worked well for you Fran.
What kind of cranberry sauce? Whole verry or jellied?
I like the one with whole berries.
DELICIOUS!!! just made these muffins, and they are absolutely the BEST recipe I have ever used online. I followed the recipe to the “T” They are perfect,! I added walnuts and baked the full 22 minutes. Thank you for sharing
That’s wonderful! Thank you for the feedback Valerie.
Could I substitute the milk for orange juice instead? Would it still work out?
Thanks!
Yes, I think that would work well.
I substituted applesauce for oil which I often do with great success. Only other difference is I added mandarin oranges and dash of orange cpeel. Still more of an oatmeal taste than fruit even after I made a glaze of 3 tbsp OJ and 1 cup conf. Sugar. I usually buy a mix and make the same changes and they’re incredible but thought I’d try this. I figured scratch would be even better but not in this case. G
You added a lot of wet moisture (mandarins and applesauce) to a recipe that was already a moist-style muffin, from the high amount of cranberry sauce. Your modifications would not work well. If you wanted fat free (which I never recommend for muffins), then it probably would have worked better to omit the oil rather than adding another wet ingredient. Oil bakes up lighter and isn’t a heavy wet ingredient like applesauce, cranberry sauce, and mandarins. If you make the recipe as written, it does work well.
Just made these muffins with half a can whole cranberry sauce and added a cup of fresh blueberries. AMAZING!! Full of berries with just the right combo of sweet and tart.
I bet those berries were amazing together! Glad it worked out so well Paige.
I’ve just discovered your site and have been looking at some amazing recipes. However, I have yet to find a single one that has nutritional and caloric information. Perhaps there is a tab somewhere that shares this information? Without this, how are we to judge whether something is as “wholesome” as it is labeled?
Thanks, Kathy
Hi Kathy, I guess wholesome can be defined differently! I define wholesome as a food made with healthy ingredients. I must be honest that I’ve always been an ingredient reader, not a nutrition facts reader. We have about 3000 recipes on this website, and I’m unable to add nutrition facts for all of them – it’s a very tedious process. We don’t have any special automation in place, it’s all manual! I wish I could help you with this. When I do have the nutrition facts readily available for a recipe, I do include them.
These worked out great for cranberry sauce leftovers! I didn’t have 1.5 cups, so I did 1 cup cranberry sauce and 0.5 cup of shredded carrot. Used grapeseed oil and cinnamon. My toddler ate it up, thankfully. I’ll try it with coconut sugar next time. Thanks for the recipe!
Those modifications sound delicious! I’m glad it worked out well for you and your little one and thanks for sharing feedback!
Today I decided to try a recipe of something a little more healthy than what my family( of growing boys) may typically expect from a muffin. My Props to Alisa Fleming!
I did also make a few modifications, to accommodate what I had on hand.
I used a mix of both the recommended spices, ginger and cinnamon. I also used one of her egg subs ( THANK YOU FOR POSTING). Turns out the snack size applesauce is the perfect amount. I also used a can of jellied cranberry sauce and coconut milk.
These both look and smell like a “cheat” muffin. Purposely had a small meal to have room to taste one of these.
I assume my using applesauce for egg is the reason mine didn’t rise. Also the apple ocerpowers the jellies cranberry sauce I used. Still turned out great regardless. Maybe nextime I will use raspberries!! Yum!!
Thanks again!!
Hi Angie, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! They still should have risen, but it does help to add a little baking powder (about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon per egg at low altitude) when using a heavier egg substitute, like applesauce. I think raspberries would be delicious!