Cranberry Lime Muffins

I picked up some fresh cranberries at the store the other day and was planning to use them for some nice cranberry scones. The only problem is that I hate making scones - at least, I hate making them most of the time. Typically, when I want a scone, I don't want to go through the effort to shape them and cut them into triangular pieces. In my opinion, that is just too much work for a scone. Now, normally, I don't mind dishes that require intense effort, but there is just something about a scone that screams simplicity to me.

So, the cranberries had been sitting in my fridge for a few days, and I still hadn't made anything with them. You can only imagine my excitement when I saw this recipes for Browned Butter Cranberry Lime Muffins on Joy the Baker's blog. I read her post at 10:49 am - I know the exact time because I looked in my history - and I went home and made them for lunch around noon. T minus 1 hour and 11 minutes to delicious goodness.

Now, what I would really like to know is why, in my 26 years of life, no one has told me about the cranberry-lime combination. It is pure deliciousness. Tangy meets electrified tangy with a hint of sweet.

I made a few modifications to the recipe. I baked it in a cast iron pan instead of a muffin pan. I hate muffin pans with a passion, and I hardly use them anymore. I found that I never had liners for muffins in my kitchen - partly because it seems like a waste of paper and partly because I would always forget to buy them. So I would typically just spray or oil the muffin pan, but inevitable the muffins stick and gra-do gets all baked to the pan. And then you have to wash each... little... individual... hole. What a pain.

I learned a trick from Susy at Chiot's Run about making "skillet cake" instead of muffins, and I have never turned back to the dreaded muffin pan since. I've tried cooking several muffin recipes this way and haven't had any disasters. Just make sure you keep an eye on the muffin cake throughout the cooking process as it may take slightly longer to cook than the recipe calls for. Yes, I just made up the term muffin cake. It seems fitting.

Can I just say that we gobbled this down as soon as it came out of the oven? It was that good. I burnt my mouth. It was worth it.

The only recipe modification I made was to add the juice from half the lime, in addition to the zest. It really kicked it up a notch. I didn't sprinkle any sugar on top as we prefer our muffins slightly less sweet.

You should definitely bake this. As soon as possible.