Recipe: Cranberry and Walnut Muffins

Winter is such a great time for baking! I love warm, cosy bakes that are delicious but don’t require too much effort and winter seems like the perfect time for that. Last weekend, I wanted to bake something with cranberries, since they are in season again and I rarely bake with them, and then I came up with the idea for these cranberry and walnut muffins. And let me tell you, they came out tasting delicious!

I’m always surprised at just how tangy cranberries are, but in these otherwise sweet muffins (with a little bit of vanilla and cinnamon) it makes for a great contrast. The same goes for the walnuts: their crunchy bite complements the softness of the muffins perfectly.

I still have quite a bunch of cranberries left over, so there’s a chance you might get another cranberry recipe next week – but it’s also very likely that I’m just going to make these muffins again because I’m already craving another batch!

You’ll need… (for 12 muffins)

• 250 g plain flour
• 150 g granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 120 ml sunflower oil (or another vegetable oil)
• 2 eggs
• 200 ml plain yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla flavouring
• 150 g fresh cranberries
• 70 g walnuts, roughly chopped
• a muffin tin
• optional: paper cases
• and an oven, of course! These muffins need to be baked at 200 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

Tip: I once learned that it’s best to coat fresh cranberries in a bit of flour before adding them to a mixture. The flour makes sure the heavy cranberries won’t sink to the bottom of the tin while baking. So, before starting the recipe, put the cranberries in a small bowl and add about a tablespoon of flour to it. Make sure the flour gets distributed over the cranberries so all of them are more or less coated. 

1. Mix the dry ingredients together Firstly, you need to take a large bowl and mix together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Make sure you sieve the flour and baking powder before adding them to the mix.

2. Mix the wet ingredients together The wet ingredients basically means: everything else (minus the cranberries and walnuts). Take a smaller bowl and mix together the sunflower oil, the yoghurt, the vanilla and the eggs until they’re combined.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients Create a little well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet mixture. Use a (wooden) spoon to gently fold everything together. Do not overmix — it is okay to still see little bits of flour. If you overmix the batter, your muffins will turn out too tough.

4. Add cranberries and walnuts Now, add the cranberries and the chopped walnuts to the batter and gently mix them through using your spoon. 

5. Divide the batter over the paper cases Divide your paper cases over the muffin tin (or grease the tin if you don’t use paper cases) and then spoon the mixture into the cases/tin.

6. Bake! Put the muffin tin into your preheated oven and bake the muffins for about 18-20 minutes, or until they’re golden on top and an inserted skewer comes out clean. When they’re done, take the tin out of the oven. Let the muffins cool inside the tin for about 5 to 10 minutes and then take them out and let them cool on a cooling rack.

And that’s it! You’ve got your own, yummy cranberry and walnut muffins. They’re the perfect wintery snack with a nice hot cup of tea or coffee – enjoy!