Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins

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If you love the aroma of cinnamon in the morning, these cinnamon buttermilk muffins are for you! They are a moist muffin and perfect for cinnamon lovers.

If I could live off muffins, I would. Blueberry muffinsstrawberry muffins, morning glory muffins, or even raisin bran muffins…I’ll take them all. Chocolate peanut butter muffins or even a simple vanilla muffin? Yes please.

But when I came across this cinnamon buttermilk muffin recipe, I knew it would quickly become a favorite. It’s like coffee cake in a muffin. This is the ultimate in comfort food.

overhead view of muffins with cinnamon sugar streusel baked inside

About this Easy Cinnamon Muffin Recipe:

  • Flavor: These warm cinnamon muffins have a triple cinnamon hit. There’s cinnamon in the batter, cinnamon streusel inside the muffins, and cinnamon streusel baked on top of the muffins, too.
  • Texture: These cinnamon muffins are the ultimate, tender muffin kept that way by buttermilk. The acidic buttermilk breaks down the gluten in flour, which leads to light, tender muffins. Don’t skip the buttermilk. Please? Thanks.

Ingredients for Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins

ingredients for buttermilk muffins on a table
  • Baking powder. Many vintage recipes that I find in my old church cookbooks call for only baking powder and no baking soda. There are 4 teaspoons of baking powder in this recipe. Buy aluminum free baking powder so the muffins don’t end up with a metallic taste.
  • Buttermilk. That thick, rich buttermilk from the grocery store is best for this muffin recipe.
  • Oil. Canola, Vegetable, or even melted coconut oil all work well.
  • Cinnamon. For the best cinnamon flavor, we like to buy Saigon cinnamon. Have you ever tried it? It has delicious flavor.

✨ See the recipe card for the full list of ingredients. ✨

How to Make Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins

  • Mix the muffins. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Whisk to break any clumps. In another medium bowl, combine the oil, eggs, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
  • Mix the streusel topping. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon and butter, cutting it together with a fork until it resembles coarse crumbs.
cinnamon sugar butter mixture in a bowl with a spoon
  • Fill the muffin cups. Spray 2 muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray or line with paper liners. Fill 14-16 muffin cups half full of batter. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon streusel on over the muffin batter. Use the remaining batter to fill the muffin cups the rest of the way. Sprinkle the remaining streusel on top of the muffins.
spooning cinnamon sugar streusel over muffin batter
  • Bake the muffins. Bake for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (without opening the oven) and bake for an additional 11-12 minutes, or until the center of the muffin bounces back when you touch it.

HOW DO I PREVENT dry muffins?

The key to tender muffins is this: Don’t over mix the batter. Over mixing batter for muffins and quick breads can cause them to be dry, tough and more “chewy”. This is because you ruin any air bubbles and those air bubbles are what give you fluffy muffins. 

Over mixing also develops gluten strands which can make for a chewier muffin. Chewy can be good in certain yeast breads or cookies, but no one wants a chewy muffin.

Also, weigh ingredients with a food scale. This will ensure you don’t get too much flour.

a stack of cinnamon buttermilk muffins, with one broken in half on top

Recipe Variations

Storage Instructions

Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the fridge for up to 5 days.

You can store any leftover muffins in the freezer. Freeze for up to 8 weeks.

cinnamon muffins with sprinkled sugar on top
cinnamon muffins with sprinkled sugar on top

Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins

4.72 from 88 votes
If you love the aroma of cinnamon in the morning, these cinnamon buttermilk muffins are for you! They are a moist muffin and perfect for cinnamon lovers.
Servings 16
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 16 minutes
Total Time 26 minutes

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Ingredients
 

For the muffins:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour 260 grams
  • 4 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder 16 grams
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 7 grams
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 6 grams
  • 1/3 cup canola oil* 76 grams
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup granulated sugar 200 grams
  • 1 cup buttermilk 8 ounces
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 10 grams

For the streusel:

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Make the muffins:

  • In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Whisk to break any clumps.
  • In a separate bowl, combine the oil, eggs, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well.
  • Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
  • In a small mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon and butter, cutting it together with a fork until it resembles coarse crumbs.
  • Spray 2 muffin pans with cooking spray or line with standard muffin cups. Fill 14-16 muffin cups half full of batter.
  • Sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture on over the muffin batter. Use the remaining batter to fill the muffin cups the rest of the way. Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar butter mixture on top of the muffins.
  • Bake for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (without opening the oven) and bake for an additional 11-12 minutes, or until the center of the muffin bounces back when you touch it. If you do the toothpick test, there should be a few moist crumbs on the toothpick.
  • Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes, then remove them from the pan and allow them to cool on a wire rack.

Video

Notes

  • *You can use vegetable oil, melted butter, melted coconut oil or melted shortening.
  • Setting the oven temperature to a high temperature initially helps the muffin form a beautiful dome on top.
  • Buttermilk Substitute We like to use store bought buttermilk because it is thick and rich. If you need to make your own buttermilk, put 1 teaspoon vinegar into a 1-cup measuring cup, then fill it the rest of the way with half and half cream. Allow it to sit for a few minutes to thicken. Stir, then add to the recipe. You can use regular milk to make buttermilk, but the higher the milk fat content, the better this recipe will taste.
  • Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.
  • The calories shown are based on the recipe making 16 muffins, with 1 serving being 1 muffin. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. **

Nutrition

Calories: 203kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 303mg | Potassium: 50mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 126IU | Vitamin C: 0.02mg | Calcium: 104mg | Iron: 1mg
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Calories 203
Keyword breakfast muffins, buttermilk muffins, easy muffins

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About JulieJulie Clark

About Julie Clark

I'm Julie Clark, CEO and recipe developer of Tastes of Lizzy T. With my B.A. in Education and over 30 years of cooking and baking, I want to teach YOU the best of our family recipes.

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Allan
6 years ago

5 stars
Easily the best muffin recipe ever. No kidding.

Anita Roberts
5 years ago

5 stars
Howdy,

I tried your cinnamon muffins yesterday and couldn’t believe that I had baked them. They were amazing! Moist and fluffy. My kids were amazed that I had baked them. ????

Today, I tried the same muffin recipe but with gluten free flour (one of my daughters is gluten intolerant). I experienced the same amazing results! My gluten tolerant daughter ate six muffins!

I look forward to trying more of your recipes. ????

Joni Bennett
2 years ago

5 stars
These muffins are really yummy. I used kodiac cakes powder instead of flour, replaced 1/2 of the sugar with monk fruit sweetener, and swapped out the oil with applesauce. I sprinkled the cinnamon sugar/monk fruit mixture on top (without butter). They’re 129 kcal and 6.5 gms protein. We will be making them often!

B Tremayne
3 years ago

This recipe comes together really easy. A couple notes: don’t fill the muffin cups 1/2 full. Fill the muffin cups 1/4 full, then sprinkle in about 1 tsp of filling, then fill cups to about 2/3 full and sprinkle remaining filling on top. If you follow the recipe and fill the muffin cups 1/2 full, you’ll use all the batter with 12 muffins and won’t have enough to fill the muffin cups the rest of the way. Also, if you fill your muffin cups all the way to the top, the muffins will spill out while baking.

Mady
3 years ago

Hey! Just made them. They turned out good. But my whole fam and I felt like the salt was too much. And another thing, the cinnamon sugar mixture went at the bottom of the cupcake mold and kinda stuck there even tho i put it in the middle-top. 👍🏼

Kelsey
6 years ago

Can I use regular milk? How would that impact the recipe?

Amanda
6 years ago

5 stars
These are great! I over baked them a tad and I didn’t use all the streusel and I wish I had, but they were still great. Cleared out by the kids in two days.

Trudy
6 years ago

5 stars
I make muffins at least once a week. These were wonderful! Especially yummy warm from the oven. My picky daughter had two – a rarity for her.

Michelle
6 years ago

Are you using a regular or mini muffin pan. The pics of muffins look like their mini, but recipe just said muffin pan. Thanks!

Christina
1 month ago

These muffins are soooo yummy! Of course, I love cinnamon and I love butter…but these just came out so great! The only things I changed were to use a little less salt (1 Tsp instead of 1.25 Tsp), a little less sugar (about .75 cups instead of 1 cup), and since we didn’t have buttermilk OR milk at all, I used 1 cup water + 1 Tb melted butter to make a milk substitute, and then to that added 1.75 Tsp cream of tarter to make a buttermilk substitute. We don’t keep milk at home, and definitely don’t buy buttermilk,… Read more »

nunya
1 year ago

The amount of salt and baking powder is too much. Only use 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsp baking powder

Arlene
1 year ago

Can yogurt be used in place of buttermilk?

Therese Clare
1 year ago

5 stars
These Were delicious!
I only used 2/3 of the sugar & it was plenty sweet for us. (I find when cinnamon is in a recipe, one needs less sugar. Not exactly sure why.) I added 1/2 tsp of maple flavoring & therefore only 1.5 tsp of vanilla.
I also put chopped pecans in the streusel since my husband really likes pecans. Super good!

Alba
2 years ago

5 stars
I love anything cinnamon and these are easy and great!

Jan
2 years ago

5 stars
I made this muffin recipe back in March and have been meaning to write a review on it. If you like cinnamon you will enjoy this muffin recipe. Cinnamon is very prominent. The cake is light and fluffy and not too sweet. This muffin is perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea or for a morning snack. I have made it many times since March. It is very flavoursome.