A splash of eggnog and a spoonful of cranberry sauce transform muffins into a festive treat. Easy Christmas Muffins are perfect for breakfast or teatime.
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One of the best parts of the Christmas season is making recipes that make every meal feel festive and special. Like making a feast for dinner or baking indulgently sweet desserts.
And breakfast? Easy Christmas breakfast ideas are the best, so you can spend more time around the tree, or get ready for a day of shopping, and spend less time at the oven.
We love muffins on Christmas morning: they come together quickly and are so delicious. These Christmas-themed muffins are full of holiday flavor thanks to eggnog in the batter and swirls of cranberry sauce.
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Why you'll love this holiday recipe
Homemade muffins will quickly make a hero of you in the eyes of everyone in your household. Christmas cranberry muffins are soft and fragrant, absolutely delicious when toasted, and spread with butter.
The cranberry sauce in these muffins gives a sweet-tart bite to the soft, sweet nutmeg-scented cake. It's a fun way to wrap those holiday flavors into something new.
To make the muffins for Christmas mornings (or any morning during the holiday season) you can pull the batter together in less than 20 minutes, and they bake up in about 15 minutes. The batter can also be refrigerated overnight and baked up in the morning while you open presents.
My Christmas morning muffins recipe is featured in the Taste of Home Christmas 2015 Cookbook (as Cranberry Eggnog Muffins,) so it's been vetted by the Test Kitchen at Taste Of Home!
The family will love trying this Christmas classic: Who Hash!
🔪 How to Make Easy Christmas Muffins
Ingredients:
- Flour: Use regular all-purpose flour for the muffins.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar is what I use.
- Baking Powder: This leavener helps the muffins rise and bake up light.
- Salt: Just a pinch.
- Cinnamon: I like Vietnamese cinnamon, but any type will do.
- Egg: Use size large eggs, local and cage-free if you can.
- Eggnog: If it's holiday time the grocery store coolers have tons of it.
- Butter: I always use Cabot unsalted butter
- Cranberry Sauce: You can use whole berry, homemade, or canned.
Make the batter
Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the dry ingredients together. Stir the dry into the wet mixture using as few strokes as possible. (As over-mixing can ruin your muffins.)
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Fill the muffin cups
Divide the batter between the 12 muffin wells, which you've lined with paper liners. Top each muffin well with a few spoonfuls of cranberry sauce. Use the tip of a knife to swirl the sauce into the muffin batter a bit.
Bake the muffins
Bake the muffins for 15-18 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Then enjoy them warm or cooled!
Into the bog!
Tour a Massachusetts Cranberry Farm
I visited and waded into a real cranberry bog located along the Massachusetts south shore.
Christmas Muffins FAQs
Yes, you can. The recipe uses baking powder, which reacts not only with the wet ingredients but also with heat from the oven. Your batter will still rise well even if refrigerated overnight.
Starting your recipe with room-temperature ingredients is one way to get better texture in the baked muffins. To help speed it along, you can warm up the egg in warm water and warm up the eggnog in short bursts in the microwave.
Yes! Let them cool completely, then slide the muffins into a resealable freezer-proof bag and press out all the air. Freeze the muffins for up to three months. Let them thaw in the fridge, still inside the bag.
Tips:
- Use the minimum strokes necessary to bring the muffin batter together. A few streaks of flour are okay. Over-mixing this batter will lead to muffins that are dense and tough.
- You can use whatever cranberry sauce you have on hand: homemade or store-bought, with or without whole berries.
The recipe for spiced, Easy Christmas Muffins is below! And here are a few other cranberry recipes to tempt you in any season:
💬 Did you make and devour this recipe? Leave a comment below.
📖 Recipe
Easy Christmas Muffins
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Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 cup eggnog, room temperature
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 1 cup homemade or whole-berry cranberry sauce, room temperature
- Sparkling decorating sugar, optional
Instructions
Mix the batter:
- Preheat the oven to 400° F. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or use paper liners.
- In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, eggnog and melted butter.
- Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture until just moistened (use as few strokes as possible, some lumps are okay.)
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups.
- Use a teaspoon to add a few dollops of cranberry sauce into each muffin.
- Pull the spoon or a clean knife through each cup once or twice to swirl the sauce into the batter. If desired, sprinkle sparkling decorating sugar over the tops.
Bake:
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until the muffins are starting to brown and a tester inserted into the muffin comes out clean. Serve while warm.
- Once cool store in an airtight container for 1-2 days.
Notes
Tips:
- Use the minimum strokes necessary to bring the muffin batter together. A few streaks of flour are okay. Over-mixing this batter will lead to muffins that are dense and tough.
- You can use whatever cranberry sauce you have on hand: homemade or store-bought, with or without whole berries.
Nutrition
Nancy Mock says
Thank you Karen!
Karen Jones Gowen says
They are very pretty! I'll bet they are delicious.