Cranberry Walnut Muffin Recipe My Kids Made

This cranberry walnut muffin recipe is so easy even your kids can make these muffins with just a few basic kitchen skills.

These cranberry walnut muffins are naturally sweetened with honey and applesauce. Add in cinnamon and dried cranberries and you have a delicious flavor combination. I also enjoy the crunch that comes from adding the walnuts. Yum!

I had some awesome helpers over the weekend. My kids made these cranberry walnut muffins almost entirely by themselves while I was in the kitchen making chocolate peanut butter pie. (We were making treats for my husband’s birthday.)

The kids had a blast working together to make these muffins. My oldest can follow a recipe, measure liquid ingredients, and crack the eggs. My youngest can gather ingredients, measure dry ingredients, and stir. I think their favorite part was getting to lick the bowl and spoons after finishing the recipe and helping to clean up.

I made a special step-by-step instruction sheet for my kids. Since they are pretty new at working together on recipes, I wrote out exactly who was going to measure which ingredients so there would be no arguments when it was time to work together.

This is cranberry walnut muffin recipe is easy to make but also incorporates many basic kitchen skills that are so important for kids to learn including:

• • Dry ingredient measuring
  • Liquid ingredient measuring
  • Pouring
  • Stirring

• Cracking eggs
• Melting butter (we used a pan on the stove)
• Using an oven safely

My kids had previous experience with these skills from taking the Kids Cook Real Food cooking course. My daughter has been through most of the beginner lessons, and my son has been through most of the intermediate lessons.

The course was created by Katie Kimball of Kitchen Stewardship, one of my favorite healthy living blogs. To give you an idea of the types of things Katie teaches on her blog and in her course, she has a free pdf with 10 healthy snack recipes kids can make on their own.

Of course, you can also make and enjoy this recipe without kids. Everything can be mixed in the same bowl. You could mix up the batter while making dinner.

If you bake the muffins while you are eating dinner, you would have a great excuse to enjoy them warm out of the oven and served with ice cream as an evening treat. Then save the rest for morning breakfasts.

Cranberry Walnut Muffin Recipe

Cranberry Walnut Muffins

These cranberry walnut muffins are naturally sweetened with honey and applesauce.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Servings 12 + muffins

Ingredients

  

• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil melted
• 1 cup apple sauce unsweetened
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 325 F.
• Mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
• Add honey and melted butter to dry ingredients and stir.
• Add apple sauce and eggs and mix well.
• Stir in chopped walnuts and dried cranberries.
• Fill 12 muffin liners about 3/4 full. You may have some extra batter for additional muffins or a mini loaf.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Note: If your kids are making this recipe, you will probably want to wait until the batter is mixed and ready to fill muffin liners before preheating the oven.

Cooled muffins can be stored on your counter in a sealed container for a few days. I imagine they would freeze well too, but I haven’t actually tried that.