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The Best Homemade Gingerbread Muffins

You're going to love this easy recipe for gingerbread muffins with bakery style tops and crunchy sparkling sugar!
5 from 1 vote
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Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 13 muffins
Calories: 228kcal
Author: Stacey | SouthernDiscourse.com

Ingredients

  • 2 ½ cups 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 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup canola oil
  • ⅔ cup dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup molasses
  • ⅔ cup buttermilk
  • ⅔ cup 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 (The first 8 ingredients. Brown sugar is not a dry ingredient.) and sift into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
  • In a separate bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients (The next 7 ingredients. Not the sparkling sugar. This is a topping.).
  • 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 just until centers of muffins spring back when touched. Overbaking will make the muffins dry and tough.

Notes

  • 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. 

Nutrition

Calories: 228kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 5g | Sodium: 191mg | Sugar: 23g