Moist, delicious cranberry cinnamon pumpkin muffins loaded with pumpkin, dried cranberries, cinnamon chips and warm fall spices. These muffins smell amazing while baking, stay moist for days and are a perfect snack or breakfast treat with a cup of tea or coffee.
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Finally November so that means it is baking season. This is when I finally get in the mood to bake with pumpkin. Not a day sooner.
I love making muffins and quick breads year round, usually of the banana variety, but I love to switch to fall baking flavors when the air starts to ( finally) cool down. I have made gluten free pumpkin muffins in the past ( when a friend who lived nearby was gluten free so I baked for them often) and instead of just updating those, I figured why not a whole new recipe?
Jump to:
Why these pumpkin muffins are so good:
- Easy to make
- Whisk and some bowls are all you need. No electric mixers.
- Smells amazing while baking
- Stays moist and fresh for days.
- The combination of pumpkin, cranberry and cinnamon is always a winner
Ingredients
These muffins are quick to make. Make sure you have what you need set out at room temperature first.
- All purpose flour - you can use gluten free
- Pumpkin pie spice - or use a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove ( see recipe notes)
- Baking powder, baking soda, Kosher salt
- Butter - melted ( can also use oil -see recipe notes)
- White sugar
- Brown sugar
- Large eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Milk - can also use buttermilk or non-dairy milk
- Pumpkin puree - NOT pumpkin pie filling, but canned 100% pumpkin
- Dried cranberry pieces - no sugar added, just dried cranberry
- Cinnamon chips (there are many diff brands/varieties, can get online or well stocked baking aisles
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions:
These cranberry cinnamon pumpkin muffins can be just one bowl, however you do need to melt the butter and cool it first and I like to whisk together the dry ingredients before adding to the rest of the mix. Two and a half bowl recipe.
Melt the butter and add to a large mixing bowl to let cool slightly.
Whisk in the sugars.
Add in the eggs one at a time. Whisk well before adding the next one.
Whisk in the vanilla.
Whisk in the milk.
Add in the pumpkin.
Whisk until very smooth.
Add in the flour and stir with a spatula until just combined. You should still see some flour streaks.
Add in the cinnamon chips and cranberries. Save some cinnamon chips for adding to the tops of the muffins before baking.
All mixed and ready to bake. Do not over mix. You can spray the muffin cups with cooking spray to keep the muffins from sticking.
Fill the cups up. Add the cinnamon chips on top.
My recipe makes 16-18 muffins. Depending on how full I fill them.
Baking tips:
Bake the cranberry cinnamon pumpkin muffins at 400 Deg F for 5 minutes. This gets a quick initial rise out of the muffins. Then lower the heat to 350 Deg F and finish baking for around 16 minutes. I always bake muffins this way and they come out perfect every time.
The muffins are done when they bounce back when pressed lightly or when a toothpick inserted into the middle of one comes back with just a few crumbs. Don't underbake, but also don't over bake.
Reminder:
Don't forget to reheat the oven to 400 Deg F before baking the second tin of muffins. I have done this before and while they still turn out great, they are better when they start out baking at the higher heat.
Substitutions:
I have made these both with regular flour and gluten free. Both ways work great.
- Cinnamon chips - Chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or even butterscotch chips would be good. Keep in mind these wont have as strong of a cinnamon flavor if a different chip is used.
- Cranberries- You can use fresh instead of dried, the muffins will be a lot more tart. I haven't tested these muffins with fresh before.
- Non-dairy - the beef hamburger can be replaced with a plant-based burger to make this vegetarian
Equipment:
- Bowls - use a smaller bowl for the flour, larger bowl for everything. I love my Mason Cash mixing bowl ( even if I have chipped it twice already).
- Whisk
- Spatula - Love GIR spatulas.
- Batter scoop - Size #16. I use this for muffins, cupcakes, pancakes and more.
- Muffin Tins - Love these USA Pans for muffin pans.
- Muffin/cupcake Liners - I love the greaseproof liners from Surfas online.
Storage:
Store the muffins in an air tight container at room temperature up to a week. In a freezer up to three months. Thaw at room temperature before eating.
Top tip
Muffins and cupcakes generally stick a little bit to paper liners unless you use thicker grease proof like I like to use ( I get them from Surfas online) and you spray the liners with a quick spritz of cooking spray or oil. These muffins stick a little the day they are baked but stick less the next day and so on.
Weighing ingredients Vs using cups:
I use my food scale and weigh out ingredients in grams because this is the most accurate way to get the best quality baked goods. Cups aren't accurate because not only are all cups not the same the sizes vary from brand to brand as well as from different countries. I have done tests with different brands of measuring cups and they all came out with different weights after I did the spoon and level as well as scoop method and then weighed in grams.
Baking is a science and science needs accuracy. Weighing is accurate and precise. Not to mention a lot easier. Another issue with cups is that I have no control over how people use measuring cups to measure dry ingredients especially flour. You could pack in way too much which would result in a sub-par baked good. Too much flour could throw everything off. Same with not enough. Not to mention also some ingredients are difficult to measure in cups such as nuts, dried fruit, chocolate etc. This is why weighing in grams is the most accurate.
I also use grams for most liquid measure since 100 grams equals 100 ml of water. Smaller amounts of items measured in teaspoons I usually leave as teaspoons, tablespoons are sometimes listed in grams as well but for the most part the different tablespoons I have used have all resulted in the same amount. Aside from cute, decorative ceramic tablespoons and teaspoons are never accurate. Those are better as decoration than for being used for baking.
More muffins to try:
Love making and eating muffins? Try these muffin recipes:
More pumpkin recipes:
Some of my favorite pumpkin recipes:
Cranberry Cinnamon Pumpkin Muffins Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Food Scale
- 2 mixing bowls one large, one small
- 1 whisk
- 1 spatula
- 1 batter scoop #16 size
- 2 12 cup muffin pans
- 16-18 paper muffin liners
Ingredients
- 115 g butter,, melted and cooled slight ( see notes for using oil instead)
- 230 g all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 ¼ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice,, OR use 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon all spice. ⅛ teaspoon clove
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 100 g brown sugar,, light or dark
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs,, room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 60 ml 62 g milk or buttermilk
- 425 g pumpkin puree,, one can - NOT pumpkin pie filling, only 100% pumpkin puree
- 150 g dried cranberries pieces
- 180 g cinnamon chips
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 Deg F. Line a muffin tin with grease proof baking cups. Spray them lightly with cooking spray (optional).
- Melt the butter and add to a large mixing bowl to cool slightly.
- In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Set aside.
- Once the butter has cooled but is still liquid, add in the sugars and whisk well. Next add in the eggs, whisking well after each then add in the vanilla and the milk.
- Add in the pumpkin puree and whisk until smooth. Switch to a spatula and add in the flour mixture and stir until just combined, streaks of flour are ok.
- Add in all of the dried cranberries and 150 g of the cinnamon chips. Mix the batter with a spatula to evenly distribute the cranberries and cinnamon chips. Don’t over mix.
- Divide the batter between 16-18 muffin cups. Filling them pretty much to the top. Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon chips over the tops of the muffins.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 400 Deg. F. Immediately lower the heat to 350 Deg F and bake for anther 15-18 minutes, until the muffins bounce back when pressed lightly with a finger or a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out with just a few crumbs on it.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes then remove to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
- Don’t forget to heat the oven back to 400 Deg before baking the second pan of muffins. Bake those as above.
- These muffins keep well up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature. They stay nice and moist. You can also keep in the refrigerator or freezer. Thaw at room temperature before eating. I never freeze them since we tend to eat them in a few days.
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