Cranberry Walnut Muffins

At one of the ladies' retreats I went to years ago, I attended a session on baking. The speaker (who I can't quite remember) handed out some basic recipes for cookies, muffins, scones, etc. Using the basic recipe, you can add ingredients to make it your own. I dug out the basic muffin recipe last week and used it for the first time. Here's the basic muffin recipe with my modifications (in italics) for making Cranberry Walnut Muffins:


Wet Ingredients -

1 cup plain nonfat yogurt

1/2 cup mashed banana

(the original recipe had several options for the first two ingredients, but this is what I liked best)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients -

1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

(The original recipe calls for only all purpose flour, but I like to use wheat flour whenever possible.)

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground sea salt

(I like to use ground sea salt instead of regular table salt whenever possible. I don't usually measure it exactly either, just grind a little right into the mixing bowl.)

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup chopped walnuts

(The original recipe calls for 2 cups total of nuts, dried fruit, flavor chips, fresh fruit, frozen fruit, etc.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees (or 350 degrees if you're going to use mini muffin pans). Lightly butter or coat muffin pan or line with paper baking cups. (I avoid paper baking cups as much as possible, because I they just get thrown away anyways.)

2. Whisk wet ingredients in a medium bowl until well blended. (I LOVE using my KitchenAid Mixer for this with the wire whisk attachment.)

3. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Add wet ingredients all at once and fold until evenly moistened. Do not over mix. (I just add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet ingredients in my KitchenAid Mixer and use the flat beater attachment on a low speed.)

4. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-22 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before removing from pan.

Makes 12 medium muffins or about 30 mini muffins.

Voila! Delicious Cranberry Walnut Mini Muffins!