Fluffy Gingerbread Muffins

These deliciously spiced gingerbread muffins are fluffy, light, moist and come with an easy lemon icing. They take minutes to put together and make a fantastic breakfast or snack perfect for the festive season.

These gingerbread muffins are not overly sweet, made using a handful of pantry ingredients, and super simple to prepare. They taste delicious, smell incredible and you'll want to make them over and over again!

These spiced muffins do not contain treacle or molasses.  Instead I used a bit of cocoa, which along with the dark brown sugar and the spices give these festive muffins a lovely golden brown gingerbread colour. 

What makes these muffins so fluffy

These easy gingerbread muffins have a wonderfully light and fluffy texture thanks to the combination of flour and ground almonds (almond flour).

Regular flour alone will not produce this effect (the muffins will be a little stodgy) so I do not recommend omitting the ground almonds in this recipe.

Gingerbread muffins ingredients

• Flour: all-purpose/plain.
• Ground almonds/almond flour.
• Cocoa: adds more depth of flavour and colour (though it won't make these muffins taste like chocolate). Use cacao powder instead if preferred.
• Mixed spice or pumpkin spice: see paragraph below for details.
• Ginger and cinnamon: important gingerbread spices.
• Baking powder.
• Salt: enhances the flavour of the spices.
• Dark brown sugar: adds flavour and moisture.
• Vegetable oil.
• Milk: use any.
• Eggs.

Gingerbread spices

Gingerbread spices are based around ginger and cinnamon plus a few other spices typically including cloves and nutmeg.

In addition to ground ginger and cinnamon I used readymade mixed spice (available in the UK), which contains all of these spices plus a few extra ones (more flavour for your muffins!).

If you are in the US use pumpkin spice, which contains similar flavours and (most of the time) can be used interchangeably with mixed spice. It works well in this gingerbread muffin recipe.

Step-by-step recipe instructions

1.Preheat the oven to 375 F/ 190 C/gas mark 5. Line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper cases and set aside. Whisk together the flours, baking powder, spices, cocoa and salt until thoroughly incorporated.

2. In another bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil and milk until smooth.

3. Gradually add the dry mixture into the wet ingredients whisking in until just combined. Do not overstir.

4. Spoon the batter into the muffin cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes then transfer onto a rack.

6. To make the icing mixture combine the icing sugar with the lemon juice and stir until smooth.  Pour over the muffins (once they’ve cooled). Enjoy!

Serving suggestions

I like these muffins with a drizzle of lemon icing but you can use orange or even lime juice in the icing instead if you like. You can also dust them with powdered sugar but they are delicious on their own, too.

Gingerbread pairs incredibly well with chocolate so another serving idea is to decorate these spiced muffins with melted chocolate as I have done in my gingerbread loaf recipe.

Other ingredients that will also work

This easy gingerbread muffin recipe is quite adaptable and you can throw in additional ingredients without changing the proportions of the ingredients used in this recipe.

• If you want fluffy as well as crunchy simply add a handful of chopped pecans or walnuts.
• Add mixed dried fruit, sultanas, cranberries etc or orange/lemon zest for a more festive feel.
• You can also add dark chocolate chunks/chips into the batter for a decadent twist.

Top tips

• Use either mixed spice (UK) or pumpkin spice (US).
• Do not overstir the batter as the muffins may end up a little flat. Stop stirring when all the ingredients have been incorporated.
• Wait for the muffins to cool before decorating.
• Store gingerbread muffins in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Microwave for a few seconds before serving (optional).
• Freeze for up to 3 months.

Related recipes

• Dried Cranberry Muffins with Pecans
• Healthy Fruit Cake Tray Bake with Nuts
• Blood Orange Muffins
• Healthy Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Why not check out all my dessert recipes!

Keep in touch!

If you make these spiced gingerbread muffins I’d love to know how they turned out for you. Let me know in the comments below, thanks!

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