Enjoy these moist and fluffy gingerbread muffins on a cold winter morning! They’ve got crisp, crackly tops, lots of ginger, and a hint of orange zest. Drizzle some citrus vanilla icing on top.

I’ve had a hankering for gingerbread lately. It may be because I’ve been starting to finalize my holiday plans for this year. Oh, and working on a Christmas list because we have a rule around here that those need to be done before Black Friday. (I rarely actually finish in time because procrastination and all that).

Despite the fact that this past weekend was unusually warm for a Chicago November (I think we hit near record highs!), I still wanted to make a cozy gingerbread treat.

These gingerbread muffins are flavored with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Since gingerbread in itself can have a rather rich, dark flavor, I added some orange zest to the batter to add some contrast to and brighten the warm-flavored ingredients. It results in a unique flavor profile that’s both cozy and vibrant at the same time.

In this gingerbread muffin recipe, I also include a recipe for a fresh orange vanilla glaze that you can drizzle on top.

How to Make Gingerbread Muffins

Equipment & Ingredients

For this gingerbread muffin recipe, you will need a 12-cup muffin pan, one large bowl, on medium-sized bowl, and a whisk.

As for ingredients, you’ll need:

• All-purpose flour
• Gingerbread spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves
• Both baking powder and baking soda
• Sea Salt
• Unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• Fresh Orange Zest
• One egg, at room temperature
• Molasses
• Brown sugar: use either light or dark. Dark will get you a darker color and more molasses flavor.
• Plain Greek Yogurt: I love using Fage 2% fat Greek Yogurt for baking! I highly recommending yogurt that has at least some fat in it to get a richer and more tender muffin. Nonfat yogurt may be tempting but just doesn’t yield the same results.
• Milk of any kind: I actually made these with almond milk to cut down a little on calories!
• Optional (but recommended): Turbinado sugar
• Confectioners sugar, orange juice, milk, and vanilla for the glaze.

Making the Gingerbread Muffins

Start by mixing all of the wet ingredients in the medium-sized bowl and then the dry ingredients in the large bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and use a rubber spatula to gently fold everything together. Here, be very careful not to over-mix the batter! Mixing too much leads to excess gluten development, which will make the muffins unpleasantly tough and gummy.

Fold the wet and dry ingredients together until the flour is just combined. The batter may be a little lumpy but that is okay.

Divide the gingerbread batter evenly between all of the muffin cups and sprinkle a little bit of turbinado sugar on top to give them a little bit of extra sweetness and crunch. This is completely optional though! If you don’t have turbinado sugar laying around don’t worry.

Now, when it comes to baking the muffins, you are going to bake at two different temperatures. Start at a high temperature for five minutes to puff the muffins up and get that beautiful crackly top. The heat will quickly rise the batter. Then, reduce the temperature for the remaining time to ensure an even bake throughout the muffins. If we left them at high heat the outsides would be overdone before the middles had a chance to cook!

The muffins will be done the tops are set and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Like most baked goods, you unfortunately do have to let them cool down before digging in. I’m a pretty impatient person sometimes so this is probably my least favorite part about baking haha. However, once the gingerbread muffins are cool, drizzle some of the vanilla orange glaze on top and enjoy!

These would be great on a cold winter morning with the biggest mug of coffee since that’s apparently what I need these days to get going. It may still be unseasonably warm outside right now, once there’s frost outside I will definitely be making these again.

How to Store Leftovers

Store leftovers muffins in an airtight container on the counter for 2 days, or in the fridge for up to 5. If you do keep them in the fridge, I recommend microwaving them quickly (around 10-15 seconds) before enjoying. You can also wrap and freeze them for up to 3 months.

Did You Make This Recipe?

If so, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment or rating. Or, take a picture and tag me on instagram @toppedwithhoney. Looking forward to seeing your gingerbread muffins!

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