CRANBERRY MUFFINS WITH RUM

Why not rum when you don't have milk? I used almond milk instead of buttermilk. It didn’t yield the usual 12 oversized muffins. But not bad for getting 11 fluffy, fruity, nutty, boozy muffins! Because why fill the muffin tins three-quarters full for a smaller muffin when a large muffin will give a superior crumb? I pile my muffins high and they never spill onto the pan or the oven. For those that do, there is something wrong with either the recipe or the preparation.

So I had the dry cranberries and sliced almonds soaked in the “why not” for half an hour. I believe full fat buttermilk is an essential ingredient of muffins... but not even milk? Good thing I still had a bit of sour cream. The obvious substitution was the unused almond milk I had sitting in the back of the fridge. Now I know I hate almond milk in my coffee. So I fortified the almond milk with apple cider vinegar. The trick is to let it stand for 15 minutes for the cider vinegar to do its magic. All things considered, it was more like 40 minutes. Other than that I just used my go to muffin recipe.

There they are my 11 muffins

CRANBERRY MUFFINS WITH RUM

1/2 cup + 4 Tbsp almond milk

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup sliced almonds

small amount of rum to plump up the cranberries

1/4 cup soft butter

4 Tbsp oil

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup 14% sour cream

Put the dry cranberries into a small bowl.

Add a small amount of rum not quite covering the cranberries.

Add the sliced almonds and mix to combine.

Let the cranberry mix plump for 30 minutes.

Next measure the almond milk into another small bowl.

Stir in the apple cider vinegar and let it stand for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Line a muffin tin with large size parchment liners. 

Add the soft butter, oil, sugar, eggs, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a beater bowl and beat it until fluffy.

In a measuring cup whisk together the sour cream and the almond milk mixture.

Alternating, gradually add the flour and the sour cream mixtures to the butter mixture and stir it with a wooden spoon just to combine.

Add the cranberry mixture to the batter and fold it into the batter.

Divide the batter in the prepared muffin tin piling the batter fairly high.

Bake in the preheated oven for 8 minutes.

Reduce heat to 400F and bake 12 minutes longer.

Test for doneness and bake it longer if needed.

Remove muffin tin from the oven, and place it on a wire rack.

Gently lift one side of the muffins to cool. At this stage they are too fragile to remove them from the tin. Except the bottoms will get soggy if left inside the thin to cool. Hence lifting up the one side for air to get in.