Lemon Cranberry Crumble Muffins

It has been so long since I have baked anything that I've started going through withdrawals!  I've always wanted to create my own recipe for a baked item but I never knew where to start.  So when I had some frozen cranberries left over from making apple cranberry squeeze pouches for Roman, I decided now was the time to create my very own recipe.

Since we're into July now I wanted to keep the muffin fresh and light.  I've always thought of lemon as a summer flavour and since it pairs so well with cranberry I knew this was the flavour I wanted for the muffin itself.  My one pet peeve with lemon muffins is they either taste artificial or the lemon flavour is so subtle that you can barely tell that it's a lemon muffin.  I wanted this muffin to slap you in the face with delicious, natural, lemon flavour and it does just that!

These muffins are super light and fluffy, the cranberries add some bite, the lemon adds zing, and the crumble adds extra sweetness and a bit of crunch.  What more could you want in a muffin!?

Lemon Cranberry Crumble Muffins (Makes 18 muffins)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup pastry flour*
3/4 cup sugar
1T baking powder
1/2t salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries
Crumble
1/2 cup large flake oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, cut into small cubes

*If you don't have pastry flour you can use all purpose flour instead.  This will result in a slightly denser muffin but it will still be scrumptious!

Preheat oven to 400°.  Grease muffin tins or line with muffin cups.  In a large bowl stir together all purpose flour, pastry flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl whisk together milk, butter, eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest. 

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until well combined.  Add in cranberries and fold in.  *TIP - toss the cranberries in a bit of flour before adding to the batter and this will prevent them all from sinking to the bottom of the muffins as they bake.  Fill muffin tins with the batter.

In a bowl toss together oats, brown sugar and butter.  Using a pastry blender (or your hands) work the ingredients together until the butter crumbles into small pieces.  My favorite way to do this is to take a handful and rub it between my hands.  Sprinkle the crumble on the tops of the muffins.  I don't think it's possible to have to much crumble so be generous!  Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy!