These Banana Cranberry muffins are a real festive treat! They are a healthy treat that are so moist with the added bananas, yogurt and Chrisopigi olive oil. Love the tart cranberries throughout and added crunch from the walnut topping.
These muffins are a real keeper! They are a perfect addition to a Christmas morning breakfast or brunch. The cranberries adds so much flavour and gives these muffins their festive appeal. Each time I make them, I forget to add a little extra cranberries, and I would recommend you do too, if you love the tartness flavour they offer.
I have made these muffins with butter and with olive oil. The butter as we know it, adds a rich flavour, and moisture where the olive oil adds so much moisture and tenderness to these muffins. Olive oil is known to enhance the flavours of spices, fruits, nuts and chocolate. So need to run to the grocery store if you run out of butter, olive oil is an excellent substitute.
I used Chrisopigi Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Gaia Fine Foods and the delicate, light and fruit pungent flavour from the olives of Crete, Greece is like no other! I have to say I will be using this olive oil in my baking moving forward. I have always hesitated because I found the olive oil I purchased was very strong and heavy in flavour and texture. They don’t compare to this exquisite olive oil.
Making this recipe:
Muffins are a simple, easy and straight forward recipe to make and they are such a wonderful treat to have over the holidays. Combined the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Add your cranberries and fold them into the batter. As always avoid over mixing muffins. I would suggest to toss in an extra handful of cranberries if you like a tart flavor. Sprinkle chopped walnuts on each muffin top for the crunchy texture. Feel free to add chopped walnuts in the muffin batter which I have done.
The recipe has enough batter to fill the muffin cups right up to the top. The results are these beautiful rounded perfect full muffins. They would definitely show case a holiday table.
Banana Cranberry Walnut Muffins
Equipment
- muffin tin
Ingredients
- 1 cup organic all-purpose flour
- 1 cup organic spelt flour (2 cups of all-purpose flour is optional)
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 (1 cup) large ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/2 cup raw fine sugar
- 1/4 cup+2 tbsp olive oil (or 1/2 cup butter, melted)
- 2 free-range eggs, beaten
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (optional: toss in an extra handful)
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with unbleached paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, combine together flour(s), baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside
- In a large bowl, mash bananas, add sugar, melted butter, vanilla, beaten eggs, sour cream/Greek yogurt. Mix the wet ingredients until well combined.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix just until the ingredients are combined.
- Gently fold in cranberries with a spatula until they are evenly distributed. Do not over mix. (if you love cranberries, toss in an extra handful, as I plan to next time I make these muffins)
- Using an ice cream scooper, scoop batter into the muffin cups until full. Sprinkle the chop walnuts over each muffin. Bake 20-22 minutes, until lightly golden.
- Allow muffins to cool for about 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
MADE WITH OLIVE OIL
MAKE WITH BUTTER
These muffins have a lot of healthy goodness in them, such as, bananas, cranberries, greek yogurt and walnuts. Make these ahead and freeze them so you can serve them up during the holidays. Your company will love them! 🙂
Whether you use butter or olive oil, these muffins will impress! They are a healthy muffin to enjoy at breakfast, brunch or afternoon snack. 🙂
