Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins

For this week's entry in Weekend Cooking, I made some muffins. I used to do an occasional posting called Muffin Monday (see Letter Topics on sidebar) but haven't done one for three years. I love muffins, and maybe will start doing this again.

As fall approaches, I needed to use up my frozen cranberries before the new ones hit the stores. I had some cream cheese in the fridge, and so did a search for cranberries and cream cheese. I found this recipe here and thought I’d try it. The muffins are delicious! Easy to make, lovely aroma while baking, and a great taste. I’ll make them again.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins

1/2 cup softened butter

4 oz. softened cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour 

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups fresh whole cranberries

1/4 cup coarse grain white sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place paper or foil baking cups into 12 muffin pan cups. Set aside. (I greased pan instead of using baking cups)

Combine butter and cream cheese in bowl (I used my KitchenAid mixer) and beat at medium speed until well mixed. 

Add sugar and vanilla and continue beating.

Beat in eggs.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Lower speed and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. 

Stir in cranberries.

Evenly divide batter among prepared muffin cups. 

Sprinkle coarse grain sugar over top of each muffin. (I didn't do this, and they were plenty sweet - though I may do it next time for that nice crunch on the top)

Bake 21-26 minutes until tops begin to brown on edges and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. (What a odd baking time. I guess I would just say that mine baked about 25 minutes.)

Cool 2 minutes in pan; remove to cooling rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature.