These cranberry orange rosemary muffins are packed full of fresh cranberries, topped with oatmeal streusel, and drizzled with an orange glaze. These muffins are the perfect way to start your day!

I love muffins. I love eating muffins. I love slathering muffins with butter.

Basically, I love muffins.

BUT BUT BUT we have a problem!

I rarely make muffins. Seriously, what is wrong with me?

I love them so much but never think about making them myself.

In fact, a lot of the time I just swing through the coffee drive-thru and pick up a muffin.

However, this is changing. This Christmas, and the rest of the winter, I’m going to be making these muffins!

THEN because I like to take things 1 step further I topped them with a crunchy oatmeal topping and drizzled them with orange glaze.

Seriously, is a muffin really a muffin without a glaze? I think not.

Now, I know rosemary might sound like a weird ingredient to throw in a muffin but I have a serious love affair with fresh herbs in my muffins.

Over the summer I made blueberry lemon thyme muffins and it was at that moment I decided all muffins should contain herbs.

Since it’s winter I decided that I needed to bust out my fresh rosemary and put it to work.

Plus the whole rosemary and cranberry combo is the best thing EVA!

I know this because I made a delicious batch of cranberry rosemary focaccia a few years ago it was a huge crowd-pleaser.

If you’re not that big into baking I still beg of you to give these cranberry orange rosemary muffins a try.

They are pretty forgiving of the add-ins so they make customization a dream come true.

Wondering what you could sub? Use lemon zest instead of orange, add a splash of almond extract, and maybe even add some nuts to the batter. The sky is the limit!

However, one thing you should know about baking – it’s science. I KNOW. I just told you it was easy and then I told you it was science. I’m the worst.

But, I’m not wrong.

It is science and there are some things you shouldn’t mess around with unless you know what you’re doing. The first rule – use quality fresh ingredients.

The second rule of baking is don’t mess around too much.

While you can normally get away with simple things like substituting blueberries instead of cranberries, using white chocolate chips instead of semisweet in cookies, adding nuts to this recipe, etc. You can’t just do whatever you want.

You can’t just say “oh I don’t have eggs so I’m gonna just throw in more yogurt” or “I don’t have all-purpose flour so I’m gonna just use this weird bag of quinoa flour I found in the pantry” NONONO you can’t do that!

Basic things like the amount of baking soda, baking powder, eggs, flour, etc. are important.

Unless you know what you’re doing just don’t do it.

Take it from me I’ve tried some of these substitutions and it was disastrous #truelife

Ok, one teeny tiny thing I want to tell you about these cranberry orange rosemary muffins – they are not super sweet.

I did this on purpose because knew the oat topping PLUS the glaze would add a bit of sweetness.

Plus I really love the tartness of fresh cranberries.

So if you are into super sweet muffins you can always serve these muffins with a drizzle (or two) of honey. But personally, I find them perfect the way they are. They totally show off the deliciousness of fresh cranberries.

Oh, and fresh cranberries freeze beautifully so if you see them on sale at the market pick them up and throw them in the freezer.

You don’t even need to defrost them before stirring them into these muffins. How easy is that?

More cranberry recipes

• Love hand pies? Try my Cranberry Hand Pies.
• Craving an easy-to-make snack cake? Try my Vanilla Cranberry Buttermilk Cake.
• Want an easy breakfast recipe? Try my Baked Cranberry Oatmeal.
• Need a fast and easy cranberry dish? Try my Cranberry Smoothie Bowl.