Easy 8 Ingredient Gluten-Free Lemon Cranberry Muffins

Lemon cranberry muffins are always a delightful treat with their contrasting flavors of sweet mixed with tangy. In light of upcoming spring, these muffins will surely put you in the mood for some warm sunshine with the fresh, tart sensation that lemon cranberry muffins are known for.  The best part? They are very easy (only 8 ingredients!) and only take about 40 minutes from start to finish.

Try these muffins when they are fresh out of the oven for a warm, melty treat, or save them for later. Muffins can keep for up to three days on the counter, five days in the refrigerator, and up to four months when sealed in a bag or container and put in the freezer. Muffins freeze really nicely, too, so freezing a batch is great for those days when you just want a little something special.

This recipe is sugar-free as well as being gluten-free. Instead of sugar, slow-burning maple syrup is used, and the coconut flour helps to add a certain sweetness to the muffins as well.

Love muffins? Try Marvelous Makeover Gluten Free Blueberry Banana Muffins

A small preliminary note on zesting the lemon: use your zester (or grater) to remove only the very outside, yellow portion of the skin. The white part of the peel is quite biter and could offset the sweetness of the muffin.

Gluten free Lemon Cranberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup organic cranberries, minced
• 6 eggs
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ½ cup coconut oil
• 6 Tbsp maple syrup
• ½ cup coconut flour, sifted
• ½ tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or by spraying it with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Put the coconut oil in the microwave for about 30–45 seconds to melt it until it is mostly liquid. If you don't want to use a microwave, you can melt the coconut oil on the stovetop just easily.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice, melted coconut oil, and maple syrup and mix everything together well.
4. In another large bowl, mix the sifted coconut flour and baking soda together with a whisk or fork.
5. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the large bowl with the dry ingredients and stir just until the mixture is combined.
6. Gently fold in the cranberries with a rubber spatula. Try to make sure that the cranberries are as evenly distributed as possible to ensure the best muffin-cranberry ratio when they come out of the oven.
7. Spoon out the batter into lined muffin cups, filling them about ¾ of the way.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Note: Check on them halfway through to make sure that they are not baking unevenly in the oven. Rotate the pan if necessary.
9. When the muffins are done baking, take the tray out of the oven and place it on a wire rack for about five minutes to let them cool a little bit, then remove them from the muffin tray by gently twisting them out and placing them directly on the wire rack to cool the rest of the way. This process will be easier if you have used paper muffin liners.
10. Serve and enjoy.