The BEST Cinnamon Muffins
This cinnamon muffin recipe has been a hit in my family for years! We always made them as mini muffins (and called them “cinni-mini-muffins”) and would devour a whole batch in minutes. Today I’m sharing an updated (just the photos!), full-sized version of this recipe, but you are still welcome to make the mini, just like we used to.
What’s To Love:
Soft & fluffy. Few things in life are sadder than biting into a freshly baked muffin and finding it dense, dry, or crumbly. In today’s post I guide you through common pitfalls that lead to such muffins, that way you can avoid them and end up with a beautifully melt-in-your-mouth crumb! Versatile. Make big, fluffy, standard-sized muffins, or make them poppable, adorable, miniature-sized (my personal preference)! Flavorful. For such a simple muffin base and technique, they are not a boring muffin. The crumb is vibrantly flavored with buttermilk, vanilla, and cinnamon and then, while they’re still warm from the oven, they’re bathed in butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar Easy. No mixer needed (seriously, do not use one) and while I stand by my two-temperature oven method I use in recipes like my chocolate chip muffins and banana muffins, it’s simply not needed here, making for a straightforward and simple recipe.
What You Need
We’ll use just a handful of ingredients to make these cinnamon muffins, most of which should be in your pantry already. Let’s briefly go over a few of the key ingredients before diving in.
Buttermilk. I love using buttermilk in baked goods for tenderness and depth of flavor. It’s a powerhouse that delivers unparallelled moisture and flavor (and one of the secret ingredients I credit to my ridiculously popular coffee cake and pancakes!) If you don’t keep buttermilk in your house, my buttermilk substitute will do the trick. Cornstarch. Cornstarch helps make these cinnamon muffins soft and tender. Nutmeg. While these are cinnamon muffins, I do like to add a touch of nutmeg. It’s very subtle, but it adds a bakery-style flavor. Vanilla. A hefty splash of vanilla adds such a nice flavor and complements the spices so well. If you have some homemade vanilla extract, this is a great place to use it! Butter. I like to use unsalted butter in the muffins themselves (plus salt!) and salted butter in the cinnamon sugar topping. If you only have unsalted butter on hand, just add a pinch of salt to your melted butter before brushing it on the muffins. If you only have salted, reduce the salt in the muffin batter to ¼ teaspoon.
SAM’S TIP: Make your own muffin liners! My parchment paper muffin liners are so simple to make and really elevate the look of any recipe. Your cinnamon muffins will look bakery0worthy if you use these! Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Cinnamon Muffins
SAM’S TIP FOR SOFT MUFFINS: Don’t over-bake! Over-baking these cinnamon muffins–even by a minute–can cause them to turn out dry. To be sure that your muffins are done, do the toothpick test: insert a toothpick in the center of a muffin, and if it comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, take them out! If your toothpick still has wet batter, keep baking and checking for doneness every minute or so. Love cinnamon sugar? Try my snickerdoodle cake next! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter and make sure to follow along on YouTube where I have over 500 free video tutorials! 💜
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