Christmas morning muffins or cranberry orange muffins are easy and light muffins to bake for Christmas morning breakfast or on any day. These muffins are fruity, spicy and just a perfect bake for a holiday breakfast.
Cranberry orange muffins are butter-less and bake in 20 minutes. From start to finish, it is 30-35 minutes recipe. Butter-less muffins are a light breakfast for a festive morning before the big feast.
Orange zest and freshly squeezed orange give a citrusy flavor, dried cranberries, nutmeg and cinnamon powder give the festive flavor to the muffins. I use less cinnamon but you can add more for additional cinnamon flavor.
When baking the muffins, the aroma of spices and flavors fill the house gives a holiday feel. Muffins are soft, moist and spongy. Recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson’s cranberry orange muffins recipe.
If planning on baking these for Christmas morning breakfast, measure the dry ingredients and line the muffin pan the night before. This makes baking the muffins much more faster in the morning. Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season!!
Related Recipes
Cranberry Orange Muffins Recipes
Christmas Morning Muffins
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Handheld mixer or Stand Mixer
- 12 cups Muffin Pan
Ingredients
- 250 grams All Purpose Flour (approx. 1 ¾ cup)
- 2 ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 100 grams Superfine Sugar approx. ½ cup
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon I used ½ – ¾ tsp.
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- 1 Orange, zest and juice
- 125 ml Whole Milk less or more depending on the citrus juice
- 75 grams Vegetable Oil (approx. ⅓ cup oil)
- 1 Large Egg
- 175 grams Dried Cranberries approx. 1 cup firmly packed
- 3 teaspoon Granulated Sugar for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Line 12 cups regular muffin pan. I used a ½ dozen muffin pan and ½ dozen paper muffin cups.
- Measure all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder. Sieve all these ingredients together or take all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well combined.
- Add superfine sugar, orange/clementine zest to flour bowl and whisk or mix until combined. If doing the prep work ahead of time, that is night before, leave out the orange zest. Add the zest next morning, just before baking.
- Squeeze the juice from orange/clementines. Take it in a measuring cup or a jug. I got about 120 ml of orange juice.
- Fill the juice cup or jug with milk until the mark reads 200 ml, less than 1 cup.
- Add egg and oil to juice+milk mixture and lightly beat until combined.
- Pour this egg juice mixture into dry ingredient bowl and stir with a fork or a spoon until everything is combined. Do not over mix and a slightly lumpy batter is ok, though my batter was lump free.
- Fold in the cranberries and spoon the batter into lined muffins pan.
- Sprinkle demerara sugar on top, ¼ teaspoon per muffin and bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean and muffins are light golden brown. I forgot to sprinkle sugar on before baking hence my muffins aren’t golden brown.
- Serve the muffins hot as is or with some butter or jam.
Notes
- Whenever a recipe has weight measures, I prefer those over cup measurements. Cup measures listed below are approximate measures.
- Suggestion - Walnuts would be a nice addition or perhaps some choco chips.
- Nutrition - Values listed are approximate.
Nutrition
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Priya Srinivasan says
Pretty Bake usha, love that beautiful color . Mixed spices aroma always feels like festive!!! Bookmarking this to try!!
Srivalli Jetti says
Another excellent one Usha..I love the concept of morning muffins, especially those that can be baked within 30 mins...I am always on the lookout of such healthy bakes..I won't mind doing this as well..
Pavani says
Lovely looking muffins Usha. Love the combination of orange and cranberries.
Amara says
Love the presentation of these beauties.
Priya Suresh says
Wow, very pretty and absolutely stunning muffins. I can start my with these beautiful bakes.