Cinnamon walnut muffins are made from scratch with easy to find ingredients. These muffins are soft, moist, and filled with cinnamon and chopped walnuts.
You'll love these cinnamon walnut muffins because you only need two bowls and some common baking ingredients. Plus, they're filled with cinnamon flavor and crunchy walnuts.
The best part is that this recipe makes the softest, most tender cinnamon muffins. And they're so easy that you can have a batch ready in about 30 minutes.
I added walnuts, but these muffins are a great base for your favorite mix-ins. Add white chocolate chips, pecans, or top with a drizzle of homemade icing, like a cinnamon roll.
Ingredients and substitutions
Baking is an exact science, so I do not recommend substituting any of the ingredients that I haven't gone over below. Substituting ingredients can cause a change in texture, lift, and moisture in your baked muffins.
Unsalted butter and salt can be substituted with salted butter.
Walnuts can be omitted entirely for a plain cinnamon muffin, or substituted with chopped pecans.
The turbinado sugar crust can be omitted (however, I don't recommend this!), or substituted with granulated sugar.
You'll need baking powder for this recipe, not baking soda. The two are not interchangeable.
Tips for making muffins
Muffins can be an incredibly easy baked good to make at home. One tip for successful muffin making? Try to not to over-mix your batter. Yes, your batter can be mixed too much, leading to tough muffins.
First, you'll start by mixing your wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Once your wet and dry ingredients are combined is when you want to mix as little as possible. Stir your ingredients by hand until they are just incorporated, then stop mixing.
Should I use paper liners?
I like using paper liners for both cupcakes and muffins, because it's mess-free and makes for easy cleanup after baking. Plus, you don't have to add extra butter or cooking spray to your muffin pan.
However, when using paper liners you'll want to make sure not to unwrap your muffins before they've cooled completely.
When baking cupcakes or muffins in paper liners, your baked goods will stick to the papers if you try to unwrap them when they're still warm in the middle. They need time to cool completely before they will unwrap cleanly from the papers.
If you'd like to serve warm muffins, you may want to grease your muffin pan and forgo the liners.
Cinnamon Walnut Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup chopped walnuts optional
Topping
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with liners, or grease, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, add sugar, melted butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. Mix until fully incorporated. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Add walnuts and stir to incorporate. Distribute batter between 12 muffin cups.
- In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon for the topping. Sprinkle evenly over the muffins.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (or with crumbs, not batter).
- Allow pan to cool for 2-3 minutes before removing muffins to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store cooled muffins in a sealed container.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- Muffins will keep at room temperature in a sealed container for 3 days, or up to a week in the refrigerator.
- Baked muffins can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months, tightly wrapped in foil and stored in a freezer safe container.
- If using paper liners, allow your muffins to cool completely before unwrapping, or they will stick to the papers.
I tried this recipe yesterday 😋 it was simple recipe ,but turned out extremely delicious, everyone loved it it.best thing was it was not very sweet .can wait to bake them again 🥰
My Chinese friend gave me a huge bag of walnuts and I needed to give her something made with the walnuts so this recipe was a lifesaver. I used less sugar (because Chinese people don't like baked goods very sweet) and a little bit more walnuts in the batter. I also changed the two teaspoons of vanilla to a teaspoon of vanilla and a teaspoon of almond extract because I was afraid the cinnamon and walnut flavors wouldn't blend well without something else to help mesh them together. (Also I just love almond.) I made the topping with brown sugar and also added some chopped walnuts to the topping as well because I thought it would look good (which it did). Anyway, these came out amazing. Very light, fluffy, delicate texture, not heavy at all, which is good with the nuts. Can't wait to make again which I will have to because there are still so much more walnuts in this giant bag I have.
When do you add the walnuts?
Walnuts are stirred in just before pouring your batter into the muffin pan.