Panera Copycat Cranberry and Orange Muffins Recipe

This Panera copycat cranberry and orange muffins recipe is loaded with orange zest, dried cranberries, and a sweet brown sugar streusel topping. Made with sour cream, these bakery-style muffins are moist, fluffy, and bursting with flavor. Perfect for a quick and easy breakfast or an afternoon snack, these large muffins are a healthy treat that’s ideal for Christmas mornings or any time of year. Try the best cranberry orange muffins for a delicious start to your day!

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The flavors in these moist, delicious muffins are exactly like the expensive ones that you can get at Panera. This is no longer an exact copycat recipe because Panera stopping putting a streusel topping on their cranberry orange muffins, but I really liked it so I am going to keep making mine that way.

Why this is the best Panera cranberry orange muffins recipe

It's simple and easy muffin recipe. Mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients, combine, and bake. You'll have to make the streusel topping and the icing, but those are also as easy as mixing a few ingredients together.

The ingredients are easy to find. You probably have most of the ingredients already in your pantry, and the remaining couple are available in every grocery I've ever visited.

The muffins taste great. The combination of the sweet-tart cranberries and the sweet-tart orange is amazing, and the streusel topping gets a little crunchy giving a different texture to the soft, pillowy muffins.

This recipe is allergy friendly. As written, this recipe is soy-free and nut-free. One simple substitution can make it gluten-free. You may be able to use an egg substitute to make it egg-free, but I have not personally tested that.

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What you'll need to make easy cranberry orange muffins

Equipment

• Cupcake wrappers - I like these paper liners because they're a little unusual and remind me of bakery-style wrappers. Since I'm going for bakery-style muffins, I thought they fit nicely.
• Egg separator - There are many different methods to separate an egg yolk from its egg white. This is my preferred method but I'm sure you can find other methods on YouTube.
• Scoop set - You'll use a large scoop to portion the batter into the muffin tin and a small scoop to portion the streusel topping onto the batter.
• Muffin tin - Obviously, if you're going to make muffins, you need some kind of muffin pan.
• Pastry blender - This is to cut the butter into the streusel topping. If you're really in a pinch, you can use a sturdy fork, but it's a lot easier with a pastry blender.

Ingredients

See the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page for all measurements and nutritional information.

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For the muffins

• Dried cranberries - You can use dried cranberries, fresh cranberries, or frozen cranberries. If using fresh or frozen, double the amount needed. I prefer to use fresh ones, but they are only available for a very short time in the fall and winter, so my base recipe assumes you only have dried. But if you do what I do and stock up on fresh berries when they're in season, you can freeze them right in the bag and pull them out all year whenever you want cranberry muffins or cranberry fluff salad. If using frozen berries, there's no need to thaw them before adding them to the batter, but you may need to cook the muffins an extra couple of minutes. (Check them often!)
• Granulated sugar - Muffins are typically sweet. If you prefer, you can use an alternate sweetener of your choice. Refer to the package for the conversion.
• Sour cream - This gives the muffins moisture.
• Vegetable oil - This is also for moisture and texture.
• Buttermilk - You don't need to buy a whole jug of buttermilk to make this recipe. See the note below for how to make a buttermilk substitute using whole milk and vinegar.
• Eggs - These bind the batter together.
• Egg yolk - You don't want the whole egg, just the yolk. Three egg whites (the two above plus this one) would make too much liquid in the batter.
• Vanilla bean paste - Vanilla bean paste is a magical goo that is made from concentrated vanilla extract mixed with actual crushed up vanilla beans. Normal vanilla extract is made from soaking vanilla beans in alcohol and then removing the beans prior to bottling. I like the paste because the beans are left in which makes a richer vanilla flavor. If you don't want to use paste, you can use an equal amount of vanilla extract.
• All-purpose flour - If you want to make gluten-free muffins, use a cup-for-cup gluten-free baking mix everywhere flour is called for in the recipe.
• Baking powder - This, together with the salt and baking soda below, makes the muffins rise.
• Salt - You may think it's odd to have salt in baked goods, but don't leave it out. It helps the muffins to rise.
• Baking soda - Again, this works with the baking powder and salt to make the air bubbles in the batter that make the finished muffins nice and light.
• Orange zest - This adds orange flavor to the muffins. I suggest using the entire zest from one orange, but you can really use as much or as little as you want.

For the streusel topping

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• All-purpose flour - Again, use a c4c gluten-free baking mix if you need gluten-free muffins.
• Brown sugar - This makes the streusel sweet and delicious.
• Butter - This needs to be at room temperature. It is what binds the streusel together and makes it into a paste rather than just flour and sugar mixed together.

For the orange glaze

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• Powdered sugar - Did you know that powdered sugar is sometimes called confectioners' sugar or "icing sugar" in other parts of the world?
• Orange juice - You may need slightly more or less orange juice depending on how much you packed your powdered sugar in the measuring cup. (Generally, you don't want to pack it at all and want to fluff it up before measuring, in the same way you'd fluff flour.)

How to make the best Panera copycat orange cranberry muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line 10 muffin tins with cupcake liners. (You may need as many as 12 depending on how big or small you make your muffins.)
2. Place the dried cranberries into a medium-sized bowl and cover with water. Let the berries soak for 10 minutes before incorporating into the batter. (Skip this step if using fresh or frozen cranberries.)
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, sour cream, vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla bean paste until combined.
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4. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined.
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5. Add the orange zest and stir.
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6. Drain the cranberries thoroughly and fold them into the batter.
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7. Using a medium scoop, evenly divide the batter between the cupcake liners.
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8. To make the streusel topping, combine the flour and sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Add the butter and use a pastry blender to cut the butter in until the mixture forms pea-sized, crumbly balls.
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9. Use a small scoop to sprinkle the crumb topping onto each muffin.
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10. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with moist, but not wet, crumbs. Remove muffin pan from the oven and place onto a wire rack to cool.
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11. Once the muffins are completely cooled to room temperature, make the icing by whisking the powdered sugar and orange juice together until smooth.
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12. Use a fork or spoon to drizzle the icing over each of the muffins.
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Variations & substitutions

You can use plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream in almost any recipe (including this one).

If you don't have buttermilk, don't worry! Measure the ⅓ cup of whole milk that you need, then remove one teaspoon and pour in one teaspoon of white vinegar. Stir. Wait 5 minutes, then add it to the batter.

If you love nuts as much as I do, you will love these muffins with a couple handfuls of chopped walnuts or pecans.

You can use fresh or frozen cranberries in place of dried berries. Use double the amount of dried since fresh and frozen berries are bulkier.

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You can replace the cranberries with almost any type of dried or fresh fruit. Strawberries or raspberries would be especially great. If using dried, stick with 2 cups. If using fresh, generally the conversion would be 4 cups fresh for 2 cups dried, but use your judgement if that looks like too much or not enough. They're your muffins.

You can use any citrus fruit in place of the orange. Lemon, lime, tangerine, or even grapefruit would work. They will have slightly different flavors but still be delicious.

This recipe makes a whole lot of streusel topping, so the muffins get pretty messy. If you don't want the muffins to be as messy, don't use all of the topping.

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Baker's tips

Soaking the dried cranberries restores just a little bit of their moisture causing them to plump up. I've never tried it, but I'm curious about soaking them in orange juice instead of water. Maybe I'll do that next time.

Do not over-mix the batter once the dry ingredients are added as this will cause the muffins to become too dry and rubbery.

If your icing is too thick, add an extra teaspoon of orange juice at a time, stirring well between each addition.

If your icing is too thin, add 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar, being sure to stir well after each addition.

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Storage

Cranberry orange muffins may be stored in a zippered plastic bag or airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. Please note that refrigerated baked goods tend to get dry and stale more quickly.

You can also freeze cranberry orange muffins. Place them on a baking sheet in the freezer for 2-3 hours or until they are firm. Then transfer them to a zippered freezer bag or airtight container and store in the freezer up to a month. You can thaw them on the counter when you're ready to eat.

The reason you freeze them on a baking sheet is that it prevents them from forming one big muffin mass in the freezer. When you freeze them individually first, it will be easier to remove just one or two from the bag at a time. If you don't freeze them individually, you'll probably end up having to thaw the entire batch because you won't be able to get just one out of the mass.

Try these other hand-held sweet breakfasts:

• Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast Muffins
• Raspberry Cream Cheese Cruffins with Crescent Rolls
• Cranberry Orange Muffins
• Blueberry Orange Muffins
• Coffee Cake Crumb Donuts
• Baked Vanilla Cake Donut Recipe
• Easy Baked or Fried Yeast Zebra Donuts
• Baked Double Chocolate Donut Recipe
• Air Fryer Donuts
• Baked Gluten Free Glazed Donut Recipe with Almond Flour
• Baked Vegan Double Chocolate Donuts
• Glazed Pumpkin Spice Donuts
• Mini Cinnamon Rolls
• Pancake Tacos

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