Sinful cranberry muffins

I was cleaning out my fridge, and found about a cup of cooked cranberries I had saved to make into muffins.

I looked at them dubiously. No mold or otherwise fuzzy lifeforms had come to inhabit them.

My first attempt at cranberry muffins were disgusting. I used the Blueberry Muffins recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook, and they were just revolting. Not enough sugar. I only halfway-salvaged them by adding that crumbly sugar topping stuff to them, and then only the top half was edible.

So I whipped out good ol' Pioneer Woman's cookbook to see what kind of muffins she makes.

She has a recipe for Marmalade Muffins, which you can see here. I modified it a bit to make them cranberry.

* 2 sticks Salted Butter, Softened
* 1 cup White Sugar
* 2 cups Flour
* 2 whole Eggs
* 1 cup water
* 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
* 1 cup of cooked cranberries
* 1/2 cup cranberry juice
* 1 cup Brown Sugar (lightly Packed)

Cream together butter and white sugar in a mixing bowl. Add eggs, beat well, and mix in flour. Dissolve baking soda into water, then add to the rest of the batter along with the cranberries. Mix well, but don't overmix!

Grease muffin tins and cram with as much batter as you can, making each one 2/3rds to 3/4ths full.

Bake at 375ºF for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar and cranberry juice. Drizzle this glaze over the warm muffins. Remove muffins from the pan while still warm.

I was going to combine this with the Betty Crocker recipe, but that one uses no butter and almost no sugar. Talk about one joyless muffin.

These, on the other hand ...

Yum.