These warm and spicy cranberry walnut muffins are the perfect way to kick off fall, and take less than 30 minutes! The bright and zesty cranberries, sweet cinnamon, and crunchy walnuts are the autumnal combo of your dreams, and we top it all off with a simple glaze.

Let's talk about the recipe!

Ingredients

• Butter
• Vanilla extract
• Sugar
• Egg
• Plain flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Whole milk
• Cinnamon
• Chopped walnuts
• Dried cranberries

For the Optional Glaze

• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla extract

Mix the Butter and Sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a muffin tin—line with cupcake papers. With an electric mixer, in a large bowl, beat the butter, vanilla, sugar, and egg together until creamy

Why do things in this recipe need to be mixed separately? Why is it like that in all cake, cupcake, and muffin recipes? This is to help with even distribution of the ingredients. Ingredients like butter tend to cause clumping, especially when they touch flour, so this helps eliminate that and allows for even distribution, so we don't get lumpy cranberry walnut muffins! Except for the intentional lumps of course - but lumps of flour and lumps of walnut are very different experiences.

Add the Dry Ingredients

Add the flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and cinnamon, and beat until combined and fluffy. Add the walnuts and cranberries and stir in until evenly distributed.

Just be careful here not to overmix. We don't want lumps of flour in our muffins, but we also don't want a sad, dense, flat muffin. That's why we're just folding in the cranberries and walnuts, to avoid overmixing the muffin batter.

Bake the Muffins

Scoop the batter into the muffin tin in 12 equal portions. Bake for 20 minutes. While the muffins bake, stir together all of the glaze ingredients with a fork in a bowl. Remove the muffins from the oven and spoon a small amount of glaze over each muffin. When cooled slightly, remove from the tin and serve.

This part is pretty simple, I just wanted to make a quick note about the glaze. Yes, of course, you can leave this out, but when I'm serving these to people, the glaze not only makes them look nicer but also adds a little extra moistness and sweetness, which tend to be crowd-pleasers.

Anyway, that's that! Delicious cranberry walnut muffins in under 30 minutes.

Cranberry Walnut Muffin Recipe

Download the recipe here

Servings: 12

Active time: 5 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Muffins

• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

For the Optional Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a muffin tin. Line with cupcake papers.
2. With an electric mixer, in a large bowl, beat the butter, vanilla, sugar, and egg together until creamy. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and cinnamon, and beat until combined and fluffy. Add the walnuts and cranberries and stir in until evenly distributed.
3. Scoop the batter into the muffin tin in 12 equal portions. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. While the muffins bake, stir together all of the glaze ingredients with a fork in a bowl.
5. Remove the muffins from the oven and spoon a small amount of glaze over each muffin. When cooled slightly, remove from the tin and serve.

See Nutrition Info

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 12
Amount per serving
Calories	199
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 7.6g	10%
Saturated Fat 2.9g	14%
Cholesterol 25mg	8%
Sodium 132mg	6%
Total Carbohydrate 30.8g	11%
Dietary Fiber 1.1g	4%
Total Sugars 21.6g
Protein 3.1g
Vitamin D 7mcg	33%
Calcium 22mg	2%
Iron 1mg	4%
Potassium 65mg	1%

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About the Author

Hi! I'm Alexandra Massengale, and I've been cooking and baking for over 12 years. My passion is making cheap, convenient, nutrient-dense food that still tastes amazing, and helping to perpetuate healthy eating habits without perpetuating diet culture. I want you to find recipes that make your body and heart happy, without putting any food off limits or making you feel guilty for loving delicious things.

By Alexandra Massengale