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The holiday season is filled with family traditions and my daughter complains bitterly if I ever try and change anything. Because the two holidays are only a month apart, I prefer to make the meals very different for each one (after all, how much turkey can one person eat?).

The one ingredient that I do use in both holiday meals though, is fresh cranberries, which are a family favorite. Did you know that cranberries are picked two different ways depending on how they are processed? In the commercials showing farmers wading through bogs of floating cranberries, the berries are being harvested for juice or sauce. The ones we get fresh in a bag or loose at the farmers markets are dry picked. In fact, the vines that cranberries grow on do not grow in water throughout their growing season. The bogs are only flooded to make the cranberries easier to pick, or to protect them from unseasonal frost.

The muffin recipe below is made with fresh cranberries. One bite and you get the tartness of orange cranberry followed by sweet icing. They are perfect holiday breakfast/brunch muffins and can be made the day before and kept covered overnight.

The author of this recipe is Delia Smith, a well-known chef and cookbook author in the UK. I made a few changes to her recipe, substituting royal icing for the fondant. Royal icing is powdered sugar and egg white that is then whipped up to a fluffy, almost marshmallow texture like that of meringue. Since golden caster sugar is hard to find here, I have substituted regular caster sugar (a fine-grained sugar) that you can purchase at some local markets (United carries it). Alternatively, you can make an easy substitute for caster sugar by processing regular white granulated sugar for about one minute in a food processor. I usually make a bigger batch than needed and keep the extra in a jar. It is great sprinkled over scones or breads.

NOTE:*It might seem that there are too many cranberries, but the volume of the berries should be greater than the batter. Also, don’t be tempted to skip sifting the dry ingredients, which makes a big difference to the lightness of the muffins.

Makes 10 muffins

Adapted from Delia Smith cookbook Delia’s Cakes

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 egg room temperature

• ¾ cup caster sugar, plus more for rolling the cranberries

• 1 cup of cranberries

• zest and juice of one orange

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted, at room temp

• 2 tablespoons milk

Frosted Cranberries:

30 cranberries (three each for topping)

1 egg white

Royal Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg white

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°

1. Line a 12- cup muffin pan with 10 paper liners and put a couple tablespoons of water in the remaining empty cups (the water keeps the baking even and stops the pan from warping).

2. Melt the butter and set aside to cool.

3. While the butter is cooling, place a mesh strainer over a large bowl and sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder and salt into the bowl.

4. In a measuring cup add egg, juice, zest, castor sugar,milk, and melted butter. Whisk to combine.

5. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and fold together— do not overmix. A bit of flour that isn’t completely combined is fine.

6. Now fold in the cranberries but don’t over-stir. (* As mentioned above, there are a lot more cranberries than batter.) Divide the mixture into the 10 prepared cups

7. Place in the middle of a preheated 400° oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

While muffins are cooling you can make the frosted cranberries for decoration and the royal icing.

For the frosted cranberries: Whisk an egg white in a small bowl. Pour some caster sugar onto a plate. Dip the cranberries one at a time into the egg wash and then roll them around in the sugar by tilting the plate from side to side. Put the frosted cranberries on a piece of parchment paper to dry.

For the royal icing: Pour the powdered sugar in to a medium-sized bowl. Add the egg white and with a fork mix it up until the powdered sugar is completely wet. Next, using either a handheld or countertop electric mixer, beat to a marshmallow-like consistency, which takes about 7 minutes. Using an offset spatula, frost the muffins. Top with three frosted cranberries.

Happy holidays to all!