You’re going to love this easy recipe for gingerbread muffins with bakery style tops and crunchy sparkling sugar! Warm spices and rich molasses are sure fill your home with inviting holiday aromas as these muffins bake, making delicious promises of the delightful treats to come! Tender, moist and just a little bit spicy, these simple homemade muffins are perfect for parties, breakfast or brunch all throughout the holiday season.
What You Need To Make Homemade Gingerbread Muffins
- all purpose flour
- ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves
- baking powder & soda
- salt
- cooking oil
- applesauce
- buttermilk
- brown sugar
- molasses
- egg
- vanilla
Gingerbread is one of The Engineer’s all-time favorites. Not too sweet, but loaded with flavor from thick, dark brown molasses, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, there’s hardly anything he likes better. He wonderfully fond memories of holidays being filled with countless gingerbread men, rolled and cut from soft, aromatic dough and ready to be eaten by the handfuls.
It’s a tradition we’ve carried on with our own family. Some years gingerboys and girls litter our counters and fill baking sheets while others we enjoy the flavors and smells of gingerbread without the mess, i.e. we make these muffins or use this recipe to make small loaves of wonderful brown bread. And I’ve got to tell you, the muffins and loaves years are my favorite. There’s nothing quite like a dark brown ginger muffin hot from the oven adorned with a melting pat of butter. Add a cup of coffee and … well, if home had a taste…
I just know that you’re going to love this gingerbread muffin recipe. Over the years, it has become our favorite. It’s quick and easy, simple to share and make. So preheat the oven and put the coffee on. Muffins are in your future!
The Best Homemade Gingerbread Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 ½ C all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ C canola oil
- ⅔ C dark brown sugar
- ½ C molasses
- ⅔ C buttermilk
- ⅔ C applesauce
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2-3 tablespoon coarse sparkling sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Line muffin tin with muffin papers or spray with non stick cooking spray.
- Measure out all dry ingredients (except the brown sugar) and sift into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients + brown sugar.
- Combine the wet ingredients with the dry. Be careful not to overmix. When well combined, spoon batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with the sparkling sugar. Bake for 5 minutes at 425° to create the cracked bakery style tops, then turn oven down to 350° and bake for another 15 minutes or until centers of muffins spring back when touched. Remove from oven and enjoy!
Pro Tips & Tricks
- Sifting the dry ingredients is important. It aerates the flour and helps to create a tender muffin. Also mixing the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately then combing them also helps with tenderness. It makes it easy to combine all the ingredients without overworking the batter (which will always result in a tough texture).
- Molasses can be a sticky mess to work with! To make it easy, use the same measuring cup you used for your oil when measuring your molasses. The oil left in the cup will make sure the molasses slides right out of the measuring cup.
- Also, warming your molasses thins it just a little, making it easier to mix into your other wet ingredients.
Other Recipes You’ll Love
- Cobblestone Apple Muffins
- Farmstyle Buttermilk Strawberry Muffins
- Overnight Gingerbread Baked Oatmeal
- Overnight Sausage Breakfast Casserole with Croutons
- Egg Nog French Toast Bake with Cranberry Pecan Topping
MAKING IT EASY TO HOST & SERVE
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These look super yummy!
Hi, Jan! Thanks so much! I hope you love them. Merry Christmas!