Soft and spiced gingerbread muffins are the perfect Christmas morning treat! My version makes tall, sugar-sparkled muffins with moist interiors.
Sparkling Gingerbread Muffins
A muffin twist on classic gingerbread, these gingerbread muffins are the perfect match for your Christmas morning coffee or hot cocoa. They are loaded with flavor and so moist with a soft, slightly dense texture (similar to my gingerbread).
A sprinkle of sugar on top (preferably coarse sugar, like the kind I sprinkle on top of the easy apple pie I recently shared) is a must! It adds a lovely texture and sparkly, wintery look.
Can you imagine whipping up a batch of these on a snow day?! So cozy!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ready in about 30 minutes, which means this recipe is perfect for a last-minute treat!
- I use the same nifty trick used in almost all of my muffin recipes (see my chocolate chip muffins for example) for nice pretty muffin tops. The key is to start the muffins at a high temperature and knock it down after a few minutes. The muffins will rise nice and high with the initial temperature and then finish baking through at the lower temp (without drying out!).
- Customizable topping (ideas below) and size. You can divide the batter into fewer muffin liners for taller, larger muffins, just note that they’ll need to bake a minute or so longer.
- Flavorful enough on their own but can be dressed up if desired! Try a dollop of whipped cream, a smear of lemon curd, or a drizzle of vanilla glaze (oh, or try the lemon glaze from my lemon muffins–yum!).
If you’re looking for more cold weather muffin recipes, my cranberry orange muffins or oatmeal muffins are also excellent choices.
Ingredients
Don’t be overwhelmed by the number of ingredients here–most are spices that should already be in your baking cabinet 😉
- Molasses. A key ingredient in any gingerbread recipe! It’s important that you use unsulphured molasses and avoid blackstrap molasses, as the flavor is too bitter for these muffins.
- Spices. Including ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and clove. These are classic gingerbread cookie spices, and I recommend you add them all for the best flavor.
- Flour. Regular all-purpose flour works just fine here. Make sure you measure your flour properly so you don’t accidentally add too much to your batter (it can be very easy to do!).
- Egg. Try to remember to leave your egg out ahead of time to let it come to room temperature; this will help it incorporate more easily and prevent over-mixing.
- Sour cream. My secret ingredient for adding moisture and flavor to so many baked goods, from sour cream coffee cake to pie crust! Full-fat, plain Greek yogurt should work just as well.
SAM’S TIP: This is optional, but I personally love sprinkling coarse baking sugar over my gingerbread muffins before they go in the oven. It adds a nice texture and extra touch of sweetness. I linked to the exact kind I used below (also used in my banana bread cookies and sourdough chocolate chip muffins), but if you want to just use turbinado sugar, that will work too!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Gingerbread Muffins
Make the batter
Whisk the dry ingredients and sugar together in a large bowl, then set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients until you have a cohesive mixture.
Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and gently fold everything together until just combined. Over-mixing here can create dense, dry, rubbery muffins, so be careful!
Bake & cool
Portion the batter into a lined muffin tin. You can either make 12 regular-sized muffins or 9-10 larger muffins–just note that if you choose the larger size you may need to increase the bake time.
For a fun texture and sweet finish, sprinkle a bit of coarse sugar over the muffin tops before baking. We’ll reduce the oven temperature after 8 minutes (without opening the door) and continue baking for another 7-8 minutes or until done. This baking method encourages nice tall muffin tops with moist, tender interiors!
SAM’S TIP: Don’t leave your gingerbread muffins in their warm pan for too long or the bottoms will get soggy/greasy as they sit and cool. Carefully remove them to a cooling rack to cool completely after 5 minutes. I like to use a butter knife and gently pry them out of the tin and transfer them to the cooling rack.
Frequently Asked Questions
I recommend you try my gingerbread cupcakes instead. These gingerbread muffins are a bit more dense, a tad less sweet, and are better suited for breakfast or a snack.
I haven’t tried this personally, but I think you should be fine to follow the baking instructions for mini muffins in my cinnamon muffin recipe. I’d love to hear how this goes for you!
These gingerbread muffins should be very moist. If yours aren’t, there’s a good chance you over-baked them–even a minute or two too long can cause issues.
The best way to avoid this is to keep a close eye on your muffins and use the toothpick test to check for doneness. To do this, insert a toothpick in the center of a muffin; if it comes out with wet batter, continue baking. If it comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, take them out of the oven!
I have a few more Christmas morning recipes for you below, but for a comprehensive list, check out my collection of brunch recipes.
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
Gingerbread Muffins
Soft and spiced gingerbread muffins are the perfect Christmas morning treat! My version makes tall, sugar-sparkled muffins with moist interiors.
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Servings: 12 muffins
Calories: 226kcal
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 425F (218C) and line a 12 count muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
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In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
1 ½ cups (190 g) all-purpose flour, ¾ cup (150 g) light brown sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon table salt, 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon ground allspice, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
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In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter, sour cream, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract until well combined.
½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (120 g) sour cream, ¼ cup unsulphured molasses, 1 large egg, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a spatula to gently fold together until ingredients are just combined, be careful not to overmix.
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(see note for larger muffins) Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle muffin tops with baking sugar. Bake in the center rack of your preheated 425F (218C) oven for 8 minutes, then without opening the oven door, reduce your oven temperature to 350F (175C) and continue to bake for another 7-8 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Baking sugar
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Allow muffins to cool in their pan for 5-10 minutes before carefully removing to a cooling rack to cool completely (removing the muffins helps keep the bottoms from becoming wet/soggy/greasy).
Notes
Baking sugar
I love using this baking sugar (affiliate) for topping my muffins, its coarse and sparkly. If you don’t have any, regular granulated sugar or turbinado sugar will work instead. Alternatively, skip the sugar and drizzle vanilla glaze over the muffins after they’ve cooled.
Larger muffins
You can make larger muffins by dividing the muffins into just 9 or 10 muffin liners instead of all 12. They sometimes need a minute or two longer in the oven (on the lower temperature) when baked this way.
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Muffins may also be tightly wrapped and frozen for up to a month.
Nutrition
Serving: 1muffin | Calories: 226kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 40mg | Sodium: 211mg | Potassium: 163mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 317IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 70mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.