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Light and mildly sweet muffins, packed with dried cranberries and candied orange peel,
these muffins are great for some festive flavors on Christmas morning!
Light, tender Christmas morning muffins in a one-bowl-mix recipe, which is really convenient to whip up, even in the morning. Though I find the taste of the muffins to be nicer on the next day, after the flavors develop overnight. So if you have time, do try to make them the night before!
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How Do These Christmas Morning Muffins Taste?
These muffins have a slight cinnamon scent, which makes them extra Christmas-y. If you don’t like cinnamon, you can reduce the amount to 1/8 tsp instead.
Cinnamon pairs really well with dried fruits such as dried cranberries and orange peel, so I would recommend you to have some cinnamon scent in it. If you have nutmeg, you can sprinkle a pinch of it in as well!
I’ve reduced the sugar in the recipe, and the dried cranberries lends a little more sweetness to the overall taste – so don’t cut the amount of dried fruits 🙂
I also drizzled some easy icing on top of the muffins, with some Christmas sprinkles. You can also drizzle some white or dark chocolate, to your preference.
>> MORE YUMMY MUFFIN RECIPES:
How To Make Them?
This recipe uses the usual muffin method – mixing the dry and wet ingredients together.
It can be a simple one-bowl-mix style, where you add the ingredients in gradually, into just one bowl – but I like to gather the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another before mixing them all together.
There’s also no need to pre-soak the dried cranberries before hand. Simply make sure that the dried cranberries do not clump together.
That’s really easy right?
What Ingredients Do I Need?
- Buttermilk – It is a type of cultured milk, so it imparts a richer flavor into baked goods. However, not a lot of recipes require buttermilk, so we may not have this item readily in our fridge. You can always make a DIY substitute using milk and distilled white vinegar. You can read about the ratio in the recipe card below.
- Melted Butter – If you prefer a richer flavor, you can always choose to use melted butter. If you do not have butter, it’s also okay to use any neutral tasting oil.
- Dried Fruits – I use dried cranberries and orange peel here. If you prefer to use mixed dried fruits or other types of dried fruits, that’s okay too! Just don’t skip the dried fruits.

Christmas Morning Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 17 minutes
- Total Time: 32 minutes
- Yield: 12 Regular Muffins 1x
Ingredients
- 250 g plain flour
- 2 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 110 g caster sugar
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 200 ml buttermilk
- 75 ml oil or melted butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 80 g dried cranberries
- 80 g candied orange peel
- 3 tbsp icing sugar
- 2.5 tsp water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C. Prepare cupcake or muffin pan by lining it with paper holders.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and ground cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl.
- Whisk together buttermilk*, oil, egg and vanilla extract in another bowl.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dried ingredients and whisk well till combined.
- Fold in the dried cranberries and candied orange peel.
- Spoon batter into paper holders in prepared pan.
- Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 20-22 mins, till a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, and the muffins are golden brown on top.
- Cool completely on wire rack.
- For the icing, combine icing sugar with water. Drizzle on cooled muffins. Top with sprinkles if needed.
Notes
1. Make your own buttermilk by placing 3/4 tbsp of vinegar in a bowl + top up milk to 200g or 200ml.
2. You can also sprinkle in some ground nutmeg if you have.
3. For the glaze, you can adjust the thickness by adding more icing sugar (to thicken) or water (to make it more runny). You can also melt white / dark chocolate to drizzle on top instead.
4. If you are not using any glaze, simply sprinkle on some coarse or raw sugar before baking to add some sweetness.
5. The muffin cups that I am using are slightly bigger so the recipe makes only 9 pcs. If you are using regular cupcake pan, you should get 12 pcs.
6. Recipe adapted with thanks from Nigella Lawson.
- Category: Breakfast, Snack, Christmas
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: American
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