Bake up these gluten-free satisfying and flavorful Cranberry-Pecan Pumpkin Muffins and fill your house with the aromas of cinnamon and cloves. With canned pumpkin and frozen cranberries you can enjoy fall holiday baking beyond the fall! 
I don’t know about you, but here it is, early January, and I’m not quite done with cranberry and pumpkin season. Until Valentine's Day baking gets going around here, everyone else seems very happy to enjoy this comfort-food as much as I do.
Though I might not be making whole loaves of cranberry-pumpkin bread now, we are continuing to enjoy Fall flavors and spices in these Cranberry-Pecan Pumpkin Muffins. They bake up faster than my Cranberry Bread and are easy to grab for a snack.
Maybe it's just stretching out the last few months of quarantine baking and next Fall we won't feel like we need to extend the Holiday comfort feeling - or maybe extending it's a good thing!
What gluten-free flour should I use?
The flour I like for these muffins is the Cup4Cup brand. It's a good choice when you want to incorporate a lot of moisture from the pumpkin and the cranberries. Cup4Cup is a light blend of mostly cornstarch and rice flours.
Cup4Cup also contains milk powder. For a dairy-free muffin I'd use King Arthur GF flour and a dairy-free spread for creaming the sugar.
For a corn-and-dairy-free blend, I would use Better Batter. It is a blend of mostly rice flours, potato starch and tapioca.
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Why place nuts just on top?
We have noticed that when my grandson eats nuts, his diapers are messier to clean. You know what I mean by that, right? So we are trying out a nut-free eating plan for him.
But sometimes even adults don’t like nuts in their muffins. I've done the thing where you make part of the batter with and part without nuts, and it's a pain! Besides, I like that when you sprinkle the nuts on top, they get toasty and fragrant.
So this recipe makes a tasty muffin that we all can enjoy, and you decide how many of the muffins get the nuts on top. (In this batch, all of them did). Stir some nuts into the batter if that works for you.
You can also vary the nuts according to your preferences: walnuts, macadamias, or hazelnuts would all be delicious.
Or, make them nut-free with sunflower seeds or hemp.
Other recipes you may enjoy
Cranberry Pumpkin Bread; Gluten-Free Libby's Copycat
Pumpkin Pie Spice Bars, Gluten-free / Vegan
Gingered Cranberry-Plum Sauce; 5 Ingredient, Paleo
Raisin-Sweetened Oatmeal Cookies; Gluten-Free
Sharing this recipe to Fiesta Friday # 363 this week, co-hosted by Angie @ FiestaFriday and Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #amealinmind on Instagram. I’d love to see what you come up with. Thank you so much!!
Beth
Cranberry-Pecan Pumpkin Muffins - Gluten-Free
Equipment
- Muffin tin
- Cooling rack
- Muffin Liners
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup butter or dairy-free spread
- ¾ cup coconut sugar use 1 cup if you like conventionally sweet baked goods, see note
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup minus ½ tablespoon pumpkin puree or 7 ½ tablespoons
- ⅓ cup water use ¼ cup at high altitude
- 1 ⅔ cup flour I used cup4cup gluten-free flour, see note
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries whole or chopped -- we prefer whole + extra for topping
- ⅓ cup chopped pecans for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and place baking liners into 12 muffin tins.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Stir in eggs, pumpkin and water.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves with a whisk or fork.
- Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well without overmixing.
- Stir in cranberries.
- Spoon into muffin tins. Top with additional cranberries if desired, and chopped pecans.
- Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Check muffins at 25 minutes and lightly cover with foil if the tops are browning too quickly, especially the cranberries. If you cover with foil, leave in an extra 10 minutes to make sure the centers cook well.
- Let cool 10 mins. Remove from muffin tins and continue to cool on a rack.
Notes
Please Pin for Later!
Jhuls
These muffins sound so good and perfect with tea. Thanks for sharing at Fiesta Friday party!
Beth
Thank you so much, Jhuls. The muffins are a great recipe, and I am so happy to have Fiesta Friday to share on!
Colleen
These muffins have all the fall flavors and were perfect for grab-and-go snacks!
Beth
Colleen, so glad you enjoyed these muffins and what a great quick snack they are.
Cathleen
This combo is everything!! I absolutely love these fall flavours, and I really need to bake with these fall flavours all year round! bookmarked to make this weekend, thanks so much for the recipe 🙂
Beth
I never get tired of cranberries, and am so glad they're available all year - hope you love these muffins!
Jen
The combination of cranberries and pumpkins in this muffin married together perfectly! I am adding this to my muffin recipe rotation. Thanks
Beth
Thanks so much for that feedback, Jen - I so appreciate it!
Karen Tedesco
This combo of spice and cranberries is so, so good! I'll be making these muffins all year round.
Beth
Thanks, Karen, it's really one of the most popular flavor combos in my house, too.
Tammy
Every season is pumpkin season to me! ;D These muffins look so hearty and delicious!
Beth
Yes, me too, I never tire of pumpkins and squashes and all the flavor combos they can take part in.
Leslie
I just love muffin recipes like this! Great ingredients, hearty, and delicious! Perfect combinations for a tasty, healthy muffin!
Beth
Thanks Leslie, it's nice to have a muffin that works for breakfast as well as a treat, and these do.
Enriqueta E Lemoine
I'm saving this for my baking season, this coming September. I'm so happy I found this blog. I', starting my gluten-free journey!
Beth
I'm so glad you are looking forward to these muffins and that I can help you with recipes for making the switch to gluten-free!
Jenny
The muffins came out awesome! Had never tried this flavor combination and they were so good. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Beth
Thanks, Jenny, there is just something about the flavor of pumpkin, cranberry and pecan that's warming and tasty at the same time.
kushigalu
I just love the combination of flavors in this muffin recipe. So creative. I would love to make this for holidays.
Beth
It is such a great holiday recipe and I always get compliments about these muffins.