Cranberry Orange Streusel Muffins

To make the streusel, combine the sugar, flour, butter and orange zest in a medium-sized bowl. Using a pastry blender or fork, mash together the ingredients until streusel resembles the texture of wet sand. Save in refrigerator until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, whisking to combine. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, oil and eggs. Add the milk, orange juice, butter and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. When there are still a few streaks of flour in the batter, add the fresh cranberries and fold into the batter until just combined.

Line muffin pans with 18 paper muffin cups. Fill each liner 3/4 full with batter. Remove streusel from refrigerator, and top each muffin with a generous tablespoon of streusel topping. Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes, or until muffins spring back when gently pressed with finger. Be sure to rotate pans about halfway through baking time.

Cool muffins in the pans for about 10 minutes, then remove them from pans and allow to finish cooling on counter for about another 30 minutes.