These soft and tender streusel-topped Maple Syrup Walnut Muffins are buttery, crunchy, and filled with the most delicious flavors. They make a perfect treat with your morning tea or coffee or afternoon snack. These mildly sweet muffins will satisfy your maple craving.
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email & I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
This page may contain affiliate links; please see my full disclosure policy for details.
Certain foods pair well together, and maple syrup and walnuts are like food buddies. The sweetness of maple syrup and the tart, earthy flavor of toasted walnuts are a tasty combo, making these maple nut muffins a favorite treat.
Muffins are meant to be simple and easy to make and bake, and this recipe uses basic pantry ingredients. The streusel topping and maple syrup glaze are just as easy to make as the batter.
Maple Muffin Ingredients
For this recipe, I used –
- Whole milk – but you can use oat milk or almond milk
- Large eggs
- All-purpose white flour – for a gluten-free muffin, use Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Flour
- Unsalted butter – but you can use salted butter too
- Pure maple syrup – I know maple syrup is expensive, but buy the best you can. if you only have pancake syrup, you can use that, but the pure stuff is so much better.
Maple syrup flavor
Maple syrup has always been one of my favorite ingredients to use in baking, because of the gentle sweetness it adds to cakes, cookies, and desserts. Depending on the grade of syrup you use the flavors can be caramel, buttery, smokey, and nutty.
Bake these muffins with maple syrup instead of sugar. If you leave the streusel topping off, they will be sugar-free.
Three favorite One Hot Oven recipes made with maple syrup are these colorful cutout Maple Sugar Cookies baked in pretty leaf shapes perfect for a fall celebration, Maple Snickerdoodles, and this Maple Apple Skillet Cake is rustic and tender with pretty sugared apples on top.
How To Make Maple Muffins
This maple muffin recipe is quick and easy and so much better than store-bought. You can mix the batter and bake the muffins in less than an hour. I like using a cookie scoop to put the batter into the muffin tin and if you don’t have a good non-stick muffin pan use these muffin liners so you can easily pull the muffins out of the pan.
Step 1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. This recipe makes 18 standard-size muffins. I use a 12-cup muffin pan and a 6-cup muffin pan all lined with paper liners. You can also use a 24-cup muffin pan. If you do, see the tip below.
Step 2. Put the walnuts on a small baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil and pop it in the oven for 5-8 minutes to toast the walnuts, stirring once or twice. The walnuts will brown a bit and smell toasty when done. You can do this with pecans too!
Step 3. If you are using whole or half walnuts you need to chop the nuts into small pieces. Simply place the walnuts on a cutting board and chop with a chef’s knife.
Step 4. Add the unsalted butter to a large mixing bowl. Place the bowl in the microwave to melt the butter. This takes about a minute. Add the milk to a measuring cup, then add the egg and mix together with a fork.
Step 5. Add the milk and egg mixture and the maple syrup to the melted butter and mix with a wire whisk.
Step 6. Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl.
Step 7. With a wire whisk, mix the dry ingredients to create a batter. Don’t overmix, as that will make the muffins tough. There may be small lumps in the batter, and that is ok.
Step 8. Add the chopped walnuts to the batter.
Step 9. Whisk the batter a couple of times to mix in the walnuts.
Step 10. Make the muffin streusel by adding the butter, brown sugar, and flour to a medium bowl.
Step 11. Using a pastry blender or two knives, mix the ingredients together until small crumbles form. If my kitchen is hot I will pop this bowl into the fridge to chill the streusel which makes it easy to crumble on top of the muffins.
Step 12. Scope or spoon the muffin batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling about 3/4 full, and top with the streusel. Bake at 400 degrees F, for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees F. and bake for 10 more minutes.
Near the end of baking, always check the muffins for over-browning. You can insert a toothpick into the muffins to make sure they are done, it should come out almost clean with some crumbs.
Step 13. In a small mixing bowl, add all of the icing ingredients and mix with a fork or a small whisk until smooth.
Step 14. Drizzle the icing on top of the cooled muffins and enjoy for breakfast, brunch or a snack!
Why use two different baking temperatures?
I know you read the instructions and are wondering why in the world are there two different baking temperatures. This is because you want muffins with those beautiful high domes like you get in a bakery shop. After all, some of us think that is the best part of the muffin.
When you start the muffins in a hot oven, this causes the muffin batter to rise quickly and create that dome top, then reduce the temperature so the muffins don’t get overbaked. When you reduce the temperature, don’t open the oven door, the muffins don’t like that!
Maple Muffin Variations
Want to change things up? Here are some ideas for you.
- Swap out the walnuts for pecans.
- Add some spices to this recipe; see this post on Baking With Spices for inspiration.
- Want to add some fruit, try dates, raisins, dried cherries, or dried cranberries?
- Instead of the icing drizzle on top, sprinkle the unbaked muffins with sparkling decorators sugar crystals.
More to bake and eat
- Try these two favorite muffin recipes that are easy to make. These Lemon Ricotta Muffins are just the best, with a touch of Tuscan flavors.
- These Peanut Butter Muffins are stuffed with chocolate chips and are the family favorite.
- Sweetening dishes with maple syrup always taste delicious, like this baked Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole.
- I promise you will love this rustic Maple Apple Cinnamon Cake, the fall flavor of this cake is glorious.
- If you are a cookie baker, grab some leaf-shaped cookie cutters and make these Maple Sugar Cookies in the prettiest fall colors.
Plus, a nutty recipe
Bourbon Pecan Pie has a creamy caramel filling loaded with sweet pecans.
Muffin FAQ’s
If you want to use maple syrup in a recipe, you can swap out one cup of white sugar for 3/4 cup of Grade B maple syrup, and if using other liquids, reduce that by three tablespoons. Try this next time you are making a quick bread, scones, or cookies.
Yes, you can switch these ingredients, and it is an even substitution.
1. It is best to use the ingredients at room temperature, that way the eggs, milk, and butter will mix together easily and make a nice batter.
2. Go easy on the mixing. Once you add the flour, mix just until no flour is visible, about 10-12 strokes with a whisk or spoon. No need to use a mixer.
3. If you are not in a big hurry, let the muffin batter sit for a half-hour which will allow the flour to absorb the liquid and relax the gluten.
3. Muffins like to be baked for 18-20 minutes using two different temperatures. This creates a nice domed top.
Muffin pan tips
What should you do if you don’t have enough muffin batter to fill all the cups in the pan? To help all the muffins cook evenly, add a tablespoon of water to the empty muffin cups.
Have you ever noticed that the bottoms of your muffins bake up dark, and the muffin liners get greasy? To solve this problem, add a thin layer of rice to the bottom of each muffin cup. The rice will absorb the oils from the batter and keep the muffins from getting overly browned.
More great recipes
Like what you see? Make sure you are following One Hot Oven for more tasty sweet and savory recipes! Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter |
Maple Syrup Walnut Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
Muffin Batter
- 1 cup butter unsalted
- 1 1/2 cups maple syrup
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups AP, flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup walnuts can use whole, half or chopped
Streusel Topping
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
Maple Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tsp. milk
Instructions
Mixing and Baking the Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare the muffin pan by either buttering the cups or using paper liners. This recipe makes 18 muffins, so you will need to use several muffin pans.
- Place the walnuts on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper and toast the walnuts in the oven for about 5-8 minutes, stirring a couple of times until they are a bit darker and smell toasty.
- If you are using whole or half walnuts, place the nuts on a cutting board and chop them into smaller pieces with a chef's knife.
- In a large mixing bowl melt the butter in the microwave. Measuring the milk then add the eggs to the measuring cup and beat with a fork. Using a wire whisk mix in the maple syrup and the milk and eggs with the melted butter.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and salt into the wet ingredients and whisk or stir until the flour is combined.
- Add the chopped walnuts to the mixing bowl and stir until combined.
- Let the batter rest for 30 minutes. then spoon or scoop into the muffin pans making them 3/4 full. Note: this is optional, as you can just go ahead and scoop the batter into the pan.
Streusel Topping
- Combine all the softened butter, flour, and brown sugar into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter mix the ingredients until coarse and crumbly. You can also use two knives and cut the butter in a criss-cross fashion to make the crumbles.If your kitchen is hot, it is helpful to chill the streusel for 5-10 minutes to firm the butter up and this makes it easier to sprinkle on top of the batter.
- With your fingers, sprinkle the streusel topping over the batter of each muffin.
- Bake at 400 degrees F. for 10 minutes then reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for 8-10 minutes. The muffins should be golden brown and the center should be dry when tested with a toothpick.
- Remove the muffin pans from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes then remove each muffin to cool on a cooling rack.If you did not use paper muffin liners let them cool for five minutes then run a knife around the edges of the muffins to loosen the muffins from the cups and set them on a wire rack to cool.Just don't let the muffins cool in the pan as this can make the muffin buttom hard and crusty.
Optional Maple Glaze
- Combine all the glaze ingredients in a small mixing bowl then drizzle over the cooled muffins.
Storage
- After the muffins have cooled completely and the glaze has hardened, place the muffins in an airtight container. These muffins will keep for 3-4 days.
- You can freeze these muffins for several months. When ready to eat let the muffins thaw on the counter at room temperature.
Notes
Variations
Want to change things up, here are some ideas for you.- Swap out the walnuts for pecans
- Add some spices to this recipe, see this post on Baking With Spices for inspiration.
- Want to add some fruit, try dates, raisins, dried cherries, or dried cranberries.
- Instead of the icing drizzle on top, sprinkle the unbaked muffins with sparkling decorators sugar crystals.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition
First published: Nov. 29, 2018, Last updated: April 21, 2022, for better readability.
Pin now to make later
Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog!
Please leave a comment to say hello or tell me what you are baking; I always love hearing from fellow bakers. Do you have any questions or want to chat about the recipe? Please visit my About page for information, and I’ll be happy to help!
About Jere’ Cassidy
From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending. Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place. I am glad to be sharing sweet and savory family-friendly recipes for your cooking and baking inspiration.
This recipe was quite..difficult. I honestly wouldn’t mind however the outcome was..okay.
But that’s okay! Everyone has different tastes & opinions. So you should try it yourself. After all, I did have fun making this. 🙂
These muffins were very good I added a little flaxseed to the recipe,,,,
That is a good idea, I will give the flaxseed a try next time I make these muffins.