These vegan cranberry muffins are bursting with juicy cranberries and crunchy walnuts, and topped with a sweet brown sugar nut crumble topping! A delicious treat that's perfect for the holidays.
Fresh cranberries are one of my favorite things to bake with during the fall and early winter months. You can't get them year round, so I take full advantage of cranberry season! I'm always the supplier of homemade vegan cranberry sauce at holiday dinners, and when I buy berries for my sauce I always fall for those signs in the produce aisle encouraging you to buy an extra bag and freeze it for later.
Those berries I freeze for later either end up in a loaf of my vegan cranberry orange bread, or these vegan cranberry muffins. I love making both because each recipe features cranberries alongside different flavors. Whereas the bread uses the classic cranberry orange flavor combination, these muffins are a tad sweeter and more subtle, with a touch of lemon zest and cloves, and a to-die-for brown sugar walnut crumble topping.
These muffins make a wonderful fall or holiday treat, and are great for a sweet indulgent breakfast or a light dessert!
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Flour. We're using all-purpose wheat flour, also known as white flour. You could probably make the recipe work with some other flour varieties like spelt flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and all-purpose gluten-free flour, but I haven't tested any of these varieties, so I can't make any promises.
- Brown sugar. You'll want to use organic brown sugar to keep these muffins vegan. Conventional brown sugar may be processed using animal bone char.
- Chopped walnuts. Want to try making these muffins with another type of nut? Go for it! Pecans would work particularly well. You could also leave the nuts out if needed.
- Vegan butter. Try Earth Balance, Miyoko's or Melt brand vegan butter. They can all be found near the regular butter at most supermarkets.
- Salt.
- Non-dairy milk. You can use any type of non-dairy milk that's suitable for drinking, as long as it's unflavored and unsweetened. Read my guide to non-dairy milks if you need help choosing one.
- Vegetable oil. Whatever variety of neutral oil you normally like to bake with will work. Corn oil, canola oil, and melted coconut oil are all fine choiecs.
- Lemon juice.
- Vanilla extract.
- Lemon zest.
- Sugar. Just like with the brown sugar, your white sugar needs to be organic.
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Ground cinnamon.
- Ground cloves.
- Fresh cranberries. Want to make these muffins when cranberries aren't in season? You can! Frozen cranberries will work just fine.
How They're Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Make your crumble topping first. Stir together flour, brown sugar, walnuts, melted vegan butter and a pinch of salt. Place the mixture in the fridge to chill while you mix the muffin batter.
Now combine the wet ingredients in a small container. This includes the non-dairy milk, oil, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl: flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and salt.
Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with your dry ingredients. Stir everything up just until they ingredients are fully incorporated.
Tip: Don't overmix your batter! It's done as soon as you stop seeing flour streaks, even if there are some lumps. Keeping stirring to a minimum will give your muffins the absolute best texture.
Gently fold the cranberries and walnuts into your batter. Again, you'll want to avoid overworking the batter.
Divide the batter among paper-lined cups of a muffin tin, then gently press a few pinches of crumble topping over each muffin. Pop them in the oven!
Bake the muffins until they're lightly domed and the topping is golden brown. You can check to see if they're done by inserting a toothpick into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean of batter, they're done!
Place the muffin tin on a wire rack and let the muffins cool before removing them from the tins.
Shelf-Life & Storage
Vegan cranberry muffins will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Cranberry Nut Muffins
Ingredients
For the Crumble Topping
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup organic brown sugar
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter, melted
- Pinch salt
For the Muffins
- 1 cup unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- â…” cup organic granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups fresh cranberries (Note 1)
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- Stir the crumble topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Place the bowl in the fridge to chill while you make the batter.
- Stir the milk, oil, lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest together in a small container, such as a liquid measuring cup.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
- Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir just until the batter is combined.
- Fold in the cranberries and walnuts.
- Divide the batter among the muffin cups (Note 2). Gently press a bit of crumble topping into the top of each muffin.
- Bake the muffins for about 20 to 22 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean of batter.
- Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack and let the muffins cool before removing them from the tin.
Notes
- Frozen cranberries can be substituted when fresh are not in season.
- The batter should be just below the top of the muffin liner. If you have too much batter you can bake a couple extra muffins in a second batch.
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Hi Alissa,
Just a note to say how much we are enjoying your Thanksgiving Salad recipe! We have a couple of times a week and will probably do so all the way to Christmas.
We have found several of your recipes to be some of our favorites.
Thank you so much for sharing your creativity and talent.
Blessings,
Beth