Fresh Cranberry Almond Muffins, No Butter Needed

Ingredients:
-1/2 C almonds
-1/2 C fresh cranberries
-1.25 C AP flour
-3/4 C unsweetened applesauce
-1 jumbo egg
-3/4 C sugar
-1.5 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp almond extract
-dash of salt

Preheat your oven to 350F and grease a muffin tin VERY WELL, or line it with cupcake papers.  In a food processor, pulse the almonds until they are mostly in small pieces with a few big ones remaining.  Transfer them over to a bowl, and then finely process the cranberries, transferring them to that same bowl when done (no need to dirty up more!)

Next, combine the egg, applesauce, extract, and sugar in the food processor.  Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and pulse a few times to combine.   Return the almond and cranberry mix to the processor and pulse a few times to incorporate.

Fill the muffin wells about 3/4 of the way full and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Now, even though these have no butter I am not exactly going to sit here and say they are healthy, but I will say they are DELICIOUS.  My only issue is that any non-oatmeal muffin makes me think of cupcakes, and then I just want to make some white chocolate icing to put on these.  I absolutely adore the texture of these with the crunchy bits of nuts, but I would like to convert this to an oatmeal muffin recipe at some point. 

I do think you could get away with using these as cupcakes as well.  The fresh cranberries give them a little zing that would be a refreshing detour from the typically hyper-sweet cupcakes.  You could also coat these in an orange glaze if you wanted.

I ran out of bread, and had no desire to wait an hour or more until something raised, so I opted for muffins. I don't make muffins all that often, so it is a really nice treat.  Usually I wait til I go home and I convince my mom to make them for me... mwahahaha.

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