Lemon-Cranberry Muffins, Round 1

When I was in high school I made some totally awesome whole wheat lemon-cranberry muffins. It was a recipe of my own invention and they were awesome! Of course, I was so sure I'd remember it that I didn't write it down. Now, aside from a few fuzzy details, I have no idea how I made them.

Back to the drawing board!

I grabbed a basic lemon muffin recipe off of AllRecipes and started tinkering with it. The results aren't perfect, but it's a start. This time I'll keep a record of what I've done and just keep revising it until I'm able to recreate something akin to the amazing muffins of my adolescence.

Imperfect Lemon-Cranberry Muffins
1 c. milk
1/3 c. canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
juice of 1 lemon
1 c. whole wheat bread flour
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
zest of 1 lemon
1 c. fresh cranberries

1/2 c. sugar
zest of 1/2 a lemon
juice of 1/2 a lemon

1. Mix all the wet ingredients together. Mix all the dry ingredients together and add to wet ingredients. Stir until just combined.
2. Grease the bottoms of 12 muffin cups or line with papers. Divide the batter between the cups.
3. Bake for 20 minutes at 350F.
4. Combine the zest of half a lemon with 1/2 c. sugar. Place the juice of half a lemon in a separate bowl.
5. Dip the top of each muffin into the lemon juice while still hot, then immediately dip into the lemon sugar.

These muffins are good (especially the cranberries), but I found the batter a bit too thick. They were also slightly dry, but I may have left them in a few minutes longer than they needed (25 instead of 20).

Next time I would:
try using 1/2 c. oil instead of 1/3 c.
consider adding another egg
try substituting honey for some or all of the sugar (I think that I might have used honey in my past lemon-cranberry adventures)
make sure to bake them for only 20 minutes

It might also be fun to try adding cranberry juice or dipping the tops in cranberry juice when garnishing. (Especially since I have a bottle of unsweetened cranberry juice in the fridge that isn't getting used up as quickly as I'd like.)