Christmas Muffins
These Christmas muffins (cranberries, pecans and orange) are ready for the holiday season!
I really love the festive flavours in this muffin, especially the surprising tinge of orange. Enjoy these muffins with a cuppa hot chocolate for breakfast or tea time. If you have extras, freeze them in ziplock bags and toast them in the oven for a few minutes till they are warm whenever you want a muffin or two.
Christmas Muffins Recipe
The baking time will depend on the size of the baking cases used (the smaller, the faster the muffin bakes).
Serves: 12 medium muffins
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups (190g) plain flour
- 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 1 cup (225g) caster sugar
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) milk
- 1 1/2 eggs beaten
- 65 gms butter cut to small pieces and melted at room temperature
- grated zest of 1/2 orange
- 50g raisins
- 30g + 10g pecans finely chopped
- 50g + 10g cranberries you can use fresh, frozen or dried
- icing sugar for decoration – optional
You also need
- sieve
- large bowl & wooden spoon
- disposable baking cases – see cooking note 2
- muffin baking tray
Directions:
- Sift flour, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl.
- Add in milk, eggs and butter. Stir until just blended (and lumpy). Be careful not to over mix as it will result in a tough texture.
- Fold in the grated orange zest, raisins, 30g chopped pecans and 50g chopped cranberries into the mixture.
- Place baking cases in muffin tins. Spoon the mixture into the cases (each about 2/3 filled). Top the cases with the remaining pecans and cranberries.
- Bake for roughly 20 minutes in preheated oven of 200°C (392°F) or until slightly golden brown. Allow to rest for several minutes on a wire rack. Use a sieve to dust icing sugar over the muffins to decorate.
Noob Cook Tip
The silver baking cups I used are bought from Daiso, Singapore and they are labelled as “aluminium dish cup size 8 – 216 sheets” for S$2. If you use this particular baking case, line them with 2 outer layers of ordinary paper cases because the silver ones are too filmsy to hold the batter during baking. After baking, discard the outer sheets.