It’s cinnamon raisin muffin time, friends! I know some people are Raisin Averse, so if you’re one of them, feel free to leave the raisins out.
But do try these wonderful muffins for breakfast or brunch. Their sparkly tops make them extra festive, so you could even make them for a bridal or baby shower. Or just because you like sparkles.
These muffins get double the cinnamon goodness with ground cinnamon in the batter plus cinnamon chips. These guys are made using The Muffin Method, just like my Ritz Carlton Blueberry Muffins.
For ease of browsing, here are all of my muffin and quick bread recipes in one place. Thanks for stopping by!
Simple Muffins Are Sometimes the Best Muffins
Friends, I have muffins on my mind. Specifically these sparkly double cinnamon raisin muffins.
I know there are a ton of fancy muffin recipes out there–ones with streusel and glaze and swirls and mixins. But sometime, you want a simple muffin. Or simple-ish. And here they are.
There’s cinnamon in the batter, and they’re also loaded with cinnamon chips. Plus golden raisins, but if you are not a raisin fan, you can leave them out.
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How To Get Sparkly Sugar To Stick To Your Muffins
And aren’t their sparkly muffin tops so pretty? Getting the sugar to stick is easy:
- Once they come out of the oven, dunk their little tops in melted butter
- then dunk them into bowl of sparkling sanding sugar.
Such an easy topping, and it brings a little crunch and sweetness to these little guys.
If you can’t find sanding sugar, you can use Sugar in the Raw. It won’t be white and sparkly, but they will still be beautiful with sparkling natural tops.
What Can I Add To These Muffins to Switch Them Up?
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At the end of the day, this is a pretty basic muffin recipe. Here are some ideas for variations:
- substitute ground ginger and minced crystallized ginger for the cinnamon and cinnamon chips. Leave out the golden raisins–or not–and add some lemon zest to the batter.
- turn them into blueberry muffins by adding lemon zest to the batter, leaving out the cinnamon, and then folding in 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries right before portioning them into your muffin tin.
- Use all white sugar and some lime zest in the batter and fold in fresh or frozen raspberries right before portioning them.
- Substitute 1/2 cup of oat flour for 1/2 cup of plain flour to make cinnamon oatmeal raisin muffins.
- Add 1/2 cup chopped apple to make cinnamon apple raisin muffins. Or leave out the raisins and use 1-1 1/2 cup chopped apple for cinnamon apple muffins
Okay, I think we’re ready to bake some muffins.
Double Cinnamon Raisin Muffins
Remember how to do The Muffin Method when making these muffins.
- Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and whisk well to incorporate.
- Combine all the wet ingredients in another bowl and whisk well to incorporate.
- Pour the wet into the dry and fold and stir gently until just mixed.
- Bake them hot so they rise nice and tall.
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Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
Double Cinnamon Raisin Muffins
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Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 11 oz low protein flour such as cake flour or White Lily all purpose flour (about 2 1/2 cups)
- 1.9 oz granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
- 2.2 oz brown sugar (1/4 cup, packed)
- 1 ½ Tablespoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt (or about 1/2 teaspoon table salt)
- 1/2-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (depending on how cinnamony you like things)
- 1 cup golden raisins
- ½ cup cinnamon chips (optional, but really so, so good)
Wet Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 3 oz whole milk (about 1/3 cup)
- 3 oz neutral vegetable oil (a generous 1/3 cup)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
Topping
- ½ stick butter (melted)
- ½ cup sparkling white sugar
Instructions
- Spray your muffin tin with pan spray or line with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 425F and set a rack in the center of the oven.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Once well mixed, stir in the raisins and cinnamon chips until evenly distributed.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, and fold together gently but thoroughly. You don’t want to overwork the batter and end up with tough muffins, so be gentle. A little bit of dry flour sticking to a few raisins won’t hurt anything, so try to quit while you’re ahead.
- Let the batter sit for 5-10 minutes, then use an ice cream scoop to fill all the muffin cavities to at least 3/4 full.
- Bake for 10 minutes, and then rotate the pan 180 degrees. Bake an additional 7-10 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and the internal temperature reads 195F.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for about ten minutes and then remove to cool until you can handle them.
- Dunk the top of each muffin into the melted butter and let the excess drip off. Then dunk them into the sparkling sugar. Set aside to cool completely.
- These are best served within a day of making them, but you can freeze them, well-wrapped for a couple of weeks. Serve warm, and enjoy!
Did You Make Any Changes?
Nutrition
And there you have it friends. Sparkly double cinnamon raisin muffins that you don’t have to share with anyone if you don’t want. But folks will be really happy if you do decide to share!
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These came out quite dry, I think less baking powder would be better
I’m sorry you were not a fan of the muffins, but I do appreciate the feedback. These are traditional, American-style muffins, which tend to be a bit on the lean side since they are made to be spread with butter and jam. If you do try them again, definitely serve by splitting and buttering, maybe with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. 🙂
Hi Jenni
I just found this recipe on you page it is kind of what I have been searching for for the last few years. I do not know if you have ever heard of the Freihofer Brand of Bakery Goods which was bought by the Bimbo Company. Anyway Freihofer’s used to make an Item they called Hot Cross Buns but it was not the usual type of Hot Cross Bun that was in a round roll shape with the White Icing Cross this one was more like a cake that was in sections but it had a Sugar like on your muffins but it had a kind of Cinnamon Sugar Type of Glaze. They discontinued these shortly after Bimbo took over and I have been searching for a copycat recipe ever since they only made them at Easter Time and everyone would wait for them to come out again for the Easter Season. I had recently emailed the company and a Representative from Entemens (not sure how to spell) returned my email with a call and I explained what I was looking for that I wanted to see if I could get the recipe and she said that they do not give out the recipes even though it is discontinued just in case they want to bring the product back again. I have searched ever year around this time with no luck. I am hoping you know about the Freihofer Company and know the Hot Cross Buns I am talking about and cam maybe reproduce the recipe and the topping.
Hi, Deborah! Sadly, I have never heard of the Freihofer Hot Cross Buns, so I’m sorry I can’t help with the topping. I will do some looking and asking around for you and see what I can come up with. I know what a bummer it is to want to have something and cannot find it anywhere, even in copycat version. I’ll report back here if and when I find out something for you. 🙂
Man, Deborah, I spent a *lot* of time looking around the Internet, and all I found was a bunch of people asking them to bring it back and them saying “no.” I couldn’t even find a photograph of them. I wish I could do more to help. Do try the muffins and see how close they are to what you remember and then maybe you can tweak from there. :/