Cranberry Muffins from Nantucket

Before Hawaii: a story and recipe from The Baking Wizard! A recipe from Greg Patents book "Baking in America"

Almost 30 years ago (oh my goodness, I'm dating myself!) I was given a version of this terrific muffin recipe by Sherry Strange, a cook who attended one of my Cuisinart food processor classes.  She told me the muffins were a specialty of the Jared Coffin House, a historic inn in Nantucket, and asked me if I would adapt the recipe for the food processor.  I told her I’d give it a try, and after several attempts I succeeded.

Can butter be used in place of Crisco?

The recipe called for Crisco, which helped make it work really well in the food processor because the fat is already aerated during manufacture, and it's the air in batters that makes them rise in the oven.  But plain vegetable shortening has no taste, so I compromised and used half butter.

Now that fresh cranberries are in our markets, I thought it a good time to rethink the recipe and make it using the original creaming method—with all butter this time.  I also switched from regular milk to buttermilk for tang, added some heavy cream for extra tenderness (hey, that’s what fat does!), and some chopped pecans for crunch.  Oh, and grated orange zest, because cranberries and orange go so well together. The result? Amazingly tender muffins that keep fresh for days at room temperature.  This means you can make them the night before you want to serve them and give them a quick oven reheat the next morning.