Oat Flour Muffins with Cranberry and White Chocolate (Healthier Recipe)

These oat flour muffins are the best kind of festive — bright cranberries, creamy white chocolate, and the softest whole-grain crumb. They taste indulgent but stay naturally lighter thanks to reduced sugar, Greek yogurt, and a blend of butter and olive oil. If you want a healthier holiday muffin that still feels special, this is the one.

These oat flour muffins hit that perfect balance of soft, bright, and lightly sweet. Tart cranberries and creamy white chocolate make them feel instantly festive, and the oat flour keeps the texture perfectly tender. I’ve baked a lot of holiday muffins, but these are the ones I keep coming back to.

If you want to play around with other flavor combos, you can check out my customizable oat flour muffins for more ideas.

Why You’ll Love These Oat Flour Muffins

• Soft and tender texture. Oat flour can get dense, but these stay light, moist, and never gummy.
• Bright, festive flavor. Fresh cranberries add a tart pop without overpowering the muffin.
• Creamy sweetness. The white chocolate melts into little pockets that balance the cranberries.
• Healthier ingredients. Whole-grain oat flour, Greek yogurt, and a blend of olive oil and butter keep things lighter.
• Easy to make. Simple ingredients, one bowl for wet and one for dry, no complicated steps.
• Holiday-friendly. Perfect for breakfast, snacks, or bringing to a gathering.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Oat Flour: Oat flour is sold in stores, but it’s also super easy to make at home. Simply blend old-fashioned oats in a high-speed blender until the oats become a fine powder (about 30 seconds to a minute). Store your oat flour in an airtight container for up to three months. For more tips on baking with oat flour, see my oat flour guide. 
• Granulated sugar: Any granulated sweetener works here, including coconut sugar or a 1:1 zero-calorie swap like allulose or monk fruit.
• Cornstarch- Keeps the muffins soft and light. You can swap cornstarch with arrowroot at a 1:1 ratio. If using tapioca flour, use slightly more—about ½ cup for this recipe.
• Baking powder and baking soda. Use both for proper lift.
• Salt. Just a pinch to balance the sweetness.
• Eggs. Two large eggs. For an egg-free option, you can try flax eggs, but the muffins won’t rise quite as much.
• Milk of choice. Any milk works — dairy, almond, oat, or soy.
• Greek yogurt. Plain or vanilla. You can swap with regular yogurt or a thick dairy-free yogurt (just avoid very thin varieties).
• Butter. Melted and slightly cooled. You can replace this with coconut oil or more olive oil if preferred, though the flavor will change slightly.
• Olive oil. Adds moisture and keeps the muffins soft. Any neutral oil works.
• Vanilla extract. Adds flavor, no substitution needed.
• Fresh cranberries. You can use frozen cranberries straight from the freezer or dried cranberries (use ⅔ cup and add 1 tablespoon extra milk).
• White chocolate chips. I used regular white chocolate chips here. If you want to keep the sugar lower, you can use Lily’s white chocolate baking chips. Just note that they melt differently and may ooze a bit during baking, but the flavor still works.

How to Make These Oat Flour Muffins

1. Prep the oven and pan. Preheat your oven to 375°F and place the rack in the upper third. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners and lightly mist them with nonstick spray.
2. Prep the cranberries. Halve or roughly chop the cranberries and toss them with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Set aside.
3. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, Greek yogurt, melted butter, olive oil, and vanilla until smooth.
5. Combine the batter. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined. Let the batter rest for 3-4 minutes and stir again.
6. Fold in the mix-ins. Gently fold in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.
7. Fill the muffin cups. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cups. If you like, sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar and add a few extra cranberry pieces.
8. Bake. Bake for 15–18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Most batches finish around 16 minutes.
9. Cool. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tips for perfect oat flour muffins

• Chop the cranberries. Leaving them whole makes the muffins too tart and uneven. Chopped cranberries distribute flavor and help the muffins rise evenly.
• Use an aluminum muffin tin. Aluminum heats quickly and bakes evenly, which helps oat flour muffins rise and brown without drying out.
• Bake in the upper third of the oven. This helps the tops dome and brown while preventing soggy bottoms.
• Let the batter rest if it seems thin. Oat flour absorbs moisture fast. A quick 2–3 minute rest can improve the texture.
• Check early. These muffins bake quickly. Start checking around 15 minutes so they stay soft and moist.
  

FAQs

More Oat Flour Recipes You’ll Love

• Customizable Oat Flour Muffins — Build your own muffin flavor with this reliable oat-flour base that works with almost any mix-in.
• Oat Flour Scones — Soft, tender scones made with oat flour for a lighter, whole-grain twist on a classic.
• Healthy Oat Flour Blender Banana Bread — A moist, naturally sweet banana bread that blends up in minutes and bakes perfectly with oat flour.
• Oat Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy cookies with a naturally nutty flavor from oat flour.
• Oat Flour Blueberry Muffins (Bakery-Style with Crumb Topping) — Bakery-style oat flour blueberry muffins that have tall domed tops and a buttery crumb topping. 
• Ultimate Guide to Baking with Oat Flour — Everything you need to know about using oat flour in muffins, cakes, cookies, and more.

If you bake a batch, let me know how they turned out! Your comments and star ratings really help others find the recipe (and they make my day).

Lightly yours,
Crystal

📖 Recipe