Sparkling gingerbread muffins have beautiful crackly tops, robust spice flavor, and are finished with zippy lemon glaze. The combination of ginger and lemon is totally underrated and works SO well in these festive holiday muffins.
Today I’m bringing one of my favorite muffin recipes back into the spotlight. I spruced up the photos and switched an ingredient to make the muffins a little more moist. I know you’ll love them even more now!
Meet the wonderfully spiced and extra moist gingerbread muffins with lemon glaze. Have you ever had the combination of lemon and gingerbread before? Perhaps a gingersnap cookie with a lemon creme filling? Or a spiced gingerbread cupcake with a fluffy lemon buttercream? The pairing may seem odd, but this combination of flavors WORKS. Spicy sweet gingerbread paired with bright & fresh lemon make an unbeatable pair and if you haven’t tried the two together, you are in for a real treat today. Promise.
These Gingerbread Muffins Are:
- Festive for the holiday season
- Like spiced gingerbread loaf in muffin form
- Deep brown and rich in robust gingerbread flavor
- Spiced with ginger, cloves, and cinnamon
- Crackly on top, just like molasses cookies
- Easier than making individual gingerbread waffles
- Topped with sparkling sugar for crunch
- Garnished with lemon glaze. YUM!
I love making muffins because they’re quicker than bread, cake, scones, cookies (if you need to chill the cookie dough), and basically easier than any other baked good. Prepare the batter, spoon into muffin liners and bake. No need to wait hours for them to cool, either. Just EAT them. Whenever I need a homemade treat for make ahead baking or bringing to a neighbor, friend, etc—I make muffins 99% of the time.
How to Make Gingerbread Muffins
- Warm molasses and butter together. This is an extra step, but takes about 1 minute in the microwave. We need melted butter for this muffin batter, so I always warm it with the molasses. Why warm the molasses, you ask? Same reason why I warm water and molasses together for my gingerbread cake. Because molasses is really thick and heavy right out of the bottle. We need to thin it out so it combines with the other ingredients. The warm molasses and butter need to slightly cool before adding the egg, so prep the dry ingredients next.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together. Nothing weird here—just flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, and cloves.
- Mix in the other wet ingredients. Whisk brown sugar, 1 egg, milk, and yogurt into the butter/molasses. My original recipe called for 3/4 cup yogurt and 1/4 cup milk and, quite frankly, it made a pretty heavy muffin. Delicious, sure, but last year I began thinning out the batter with a higher ratio of milk. You need 1 cup total, so I use 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup yogurt. If you don’t have yogurt, use sour cream.
- Combine wet & dry ingredients. Smells good already!
- Spoon into muffin liners. If you don’t have muffin liners, grease the pan. Fill the cups all the way to the top—filling is easy because the batter is thick and spoon-able.
- Add crunchy sugar. Sparkling sugar is my favorite secret ingredient for topping scones and pies because it adds sparkle and crunch. Just as we coat molasses cookies with granulated sugar, coat the muffins with coarse sugar. Coarse Sugar in the Raw is a wonderful option, too!
- Bake: The muffins take a little over 20 minutes.
- Top with lemon icing: More on that below!
Baker’s Tip: The muffin batter is thick—this helps create a denser muffin-like texture. Gingerbread cupcakes batter, on the other hand, is a little thinner because we’re looking for a lighter cupcake texture.
What Else Makes These Muffins So Special?
The muffins themselves aren’t overly sweet, so they’re perfect for breakfast, snack, or even a light dessert. We need 1/2 cup of brown sugar for the whole batter, plus 3/4 cup of molasses. Molasses isn’t nearly as sweet as regular sugar, so don’t expect a cloyingly sweet treat. Sometimes I skip the glaze and sparkling sugar on top—and guess what? The muffins are still perfectly flavorful and well-loved.
Use dark brown sugar if you have it. It has more molasses flavor than light brown sugar. Don’t make a special trip to the store if you don’t have it, though. Light (regular) brown sugar is totally fine in this recipe.
Need a snack as you bake Christmas cookies, open gifts, or sip coffee with your friends? These jolly gingerbread muffins fit literally any and all holiday occasions. 😉
Lemon Glaze
Let’s move on to that sweet and tangy lemon glaze—a drippy coating that pairs perfectly with the deep, dark, spiced muffin underneath.
Grab your confectioners’ sugar, a touch of milk, and the juice of a lemon. You can control the lemon flavor and the thickness of it—use more/less lemon juice, more/less sugar, and more/less milk. If you’re not feeling the lemon/ginger combination, keep the muffins plain or use vanilla icing instead.
The Trick for Tall Muffin Tops
And one more thing before I leave you with the recipe! Fill your muffin tins all the way to the top. Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F degrees, then for about 15-16 minutes at 350°F degrees. This initial high oven temperature lifts the muffin top up quickly and creates a tall crust, which is why filling the muffin tins to the top is imperative.
Most muffins bake between 350°F – 375°F for the entire time. Setting the oven to 425°F initially and then lowering the temperature after 5 minutes guarantees muffins with tall, sugar-crusted, crackly tops. I do this with all my muffin recipes!
More Gingerbread Recipes
- Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread Cake
- Chocolate Gingerbread Bundt Cake
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Homemade Gingerbread House
- Gingerbread Waffles
- Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Gingerbread Cake
Gingerbread Muffins with Sweet Lemon Glaze
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These gingerbread muffins have beautiful crackly tops, robust spice flavor, and are finished with zippy lemon glaze. Feel free to skip the glaze for plain gingerbread muffins. See last step for freezing instructions.
Ingredients
Gingerbread Muffins
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup (180ml) unsulphured or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand)
- 2 and 2/3 cups (334g) all purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) plain yogurt or sour cream, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk, at room temperature*
- optional: coarse sugar for sprinkling
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar (or more, as needed)
- 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Generously grease a 12-count muffin pan with butter or nonstick spray or line with muffin liners. Set aside.
- Cut the butter into smaller pieces so it melts easier. In a large microwave-safe bowl, heat the butter and molasses together in the microwave on high for about 1 minute. Whisk until thoroughly mixed together. Set aside to slightly cool as you mix the dry ingredients together.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves together.
- Into the molasses/butter mixture, whisk the brown sugar, egg, yogurt, and milk until all wet ingredients are combined. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk until *just* combined. Do not over-mix. Batter will be thick and a little lumpy.
- Divide batter among prepared muffin pan, filling all the way to the top. Sprinkle with coarse sugar (for added crunch, recommended!), if desired. Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C) and continue to bake for 15-16 minutes until the tops are cracked and centers are set. Use a toothpick to test. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes in pan before glazing and serving.
- Make the glaze: As the muffins cool, prepare your lemon glaze by mixing all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl. If desired, add more confectioners’ sugar to thicken or more milk to thin out. Drizzle on top of warm muffins. Icing will set as the muffins cool, so these are great for storing and/or transporting.
- Cover leftover (iced or plain) muffins and store at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 1 week. Muffins (iced or plain) freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or on the counter.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links):Â 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Coarse Sugar | Citrus Juicer
- Molasses: I prefer Grandma’s brand dark molasses, but you can also use a light or mild molasses. I do not recommend blackstrap because of its extremely intense/bitter flavor.Â
- Milk: I use whole milk in these muffins, but you can use lower fat milks or nondairy milk if needed.
- Jumbo Muffins or Mini Muffins: For 6-7 jumbo size muffins, bake in a 6-count jumbo muffin pan, increase baking time to 26-30 total minutes: 5 initial minutes at 425°F and 21-25 minutes at 350°F. For about 50 mini muffins, bake for 11-12 minutes at 350°F the entire time.
These are a good, basic gingerbread muffin. I followed the recipe as written until scooping, where I divided it equally into 12 liners, spaced every other one in 2 pans, and baked. They did get a nice dome on them, which had a nice crunch due to the turbinado sugar I put on. I did increase the spice level in mine, as they seemed like small amounts, and I still found it to be a bit bland and lacking in the spices department. If you like very mild gingerbread flavors, though, you’ll like these. Texture wise, they were more of a bready, coarse-crumbed muffin than a light, fluffy, and cakey one. Again, just a matter of preferance, and they were still quite delicious. Lastly, the sugar level was lower than many other muffin recipes I’ve tried, which I did appreciate, but do understand before baking that you will be not be getting a very sweet muffin- more of a subtely spiced, early-morning breakfast type muffin. A solid muffin overall.
Hi Sally ,
I would love to try this recipe but only have fan forced oven, pls can you help me with temps and times for large 6 x holel muffin bake tin. Also, could this recipe be halved and still work, as I would only like to make 6. Could I use treacle instead of molasses
Thanks
Hi Debbie, We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake. See recipe Notes for jumbo muffin baking times. Yes, you can try halving the recipe for 6 regular sized muffins. Enjoy!
I’m going to make these with fresh grated ginger they Will be terrific
We made these for Christmas morning and they were so delicious. The sparkling sugar was so pretty that we did not even need the lemon glaze. Thank you so much!
Excellent and a hit at Christmas Brunch. They were a bit dry and my oven is quite accurate; I would reduce the baking time. I did use 1/4 c honey and 1/2 c molasses as it seemed too much molasses to my taste. I might try with an extra egg and 1/2 c molasses next time to get more lasting moist texture. Seasoning is excellent, and the crackly of the coarse sugar plus the lemon glaze is magical.
Sorry, not clever enough to write my whole message. I scaled the recipe in my paprika app and made 4 large muffins. I used vanilla yogurt and milk (half and half as suggested.) My baker friend and I enjoyed them for our monthly coffee klatch – so good. I was afraid they might be a little sour from tasting the batter (from the baking powder in scaled version?) so I served them with whipped sweet cream with orange zest and some ginger made with my whipping siphon. So fun and a delicious addition.
These were delicious!
Have made this recipe 3times now we love them
I live in Belgium and molasses is hard to find. Would it be ok to use dark corn syrup
Hi Xavier, unfortunately there aren’t any great replacements for molasses that will give you that signature molasses taste. You could try dark corn syrup, but the intended outcome of the muffins will be different.
The flavour of these muffins are gorgeous! However, following your recipe exactly as written and filling the muffin cups to the top gave me 14 muffins, each one having batter running over the side. Having said that, it wasn’t a problem cutting the excess from the edge and putting those bits in a bowl for nibbling. Next time I won’t fill them quite as full and have prettier( and more!) muffins.
My muffins came out a little dry. Don’t know if I over mixed or cooked too long. I timed it as the recipe instructed.
Hi Marmie, how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured, which can dry out baked goods. You can also try decreasing the bake time by just a minute or two. Thank you for giving these a try!
Hi there, as someone from the UK we can only get black treacle which I think is the same as blackstrap molasses, what adjustments to the recipe would you recommend for this? Thanks
Hi Alex, we haven’t tested this recipe with black treacle, but in theory, it should work. If your treacle is bitter-tasting, you could try using a mixture of treacle and golden syrup, so you get the molasses flavor with a little more sweetness. If you try it, please let us know how it turns out! Also, if you have access to a Whole Foods where you are, I know they carry quite a few American products, and may stock the American type of molasses. (The brand we use here is called Grandma’s.) And if you’re in London, Partridge’s likely carries it, but it will cost 3x as much!
Hi Alex, I am also from the UK and just made this recipe today using black treacle. I used a scale to measure amount which came out to a little less than 3/4 cup. They taste absolutely gorgeous!
Thank you for sharing such wonderful recipes! I love them all.
I have a question not related to a specific recipe but to something that happens with my flour when mixing dry and wet ingredients together. Sometimes (even after sifting) flour balls form. Sometimes they dissapear during the baking process and sometimes they do not. Any advice? Many thanks.
Hi Wendee, is your flour old by chance? It could just be settling down in the bag and causing small flour balls to form. When combining the wet and dry ingredients, be sure to whisk/mix well so that all of the flour is incorporated. You can even take a spatula to help break them up on the side of the bowl. Hope this helps!
Thank you for getting back to me. I appreciate the suggestions.
These are excellent. I’m wondering g if we could add apple or raisins?
Hi Judy, absolutely. We’d recommend anywhere between 1 – 1 and 1/2 cups.
Would these work as mini-muffins, do you think?
Absolutely! See recipe Notes for details.
This is amazing. My kids all love them. I’m going to make extra batter to freeze. Thank you.
I have never baked a gingerbread recipe until today! You are my sole inspiration so had to dive into these today and whoa!! Ahhhh-mazing! Can’t wait to have coffee with one!
I just saw the bars you posted this am, holy gingerbread! I will be making those next week. Thank you for everything! I bake something from you weekly! Now off to make peanut butter cup cookies for camp! I will
Post a pic of these babies on social, too pretty not too!
So glad you enjoyed the muffins, Lisa!
Love this recipe! How can I adapt it to become a quick bread?
Hi Suz, you may enjoy this gingerbread quick bread/loaf. Or you can try this muffin recipe in a 9×5-inch loaf pan. The bake time should be around 50-60 minutes at 350°F (177°C).
Can I use buttermilk in place of the yogurt/sour cream?
Hi Steve, we haven’t tried this recipe with buttermilk, but you could likely substitute it for some of the milk + sour cream. If you try it, let us know how they turn out!
Can gf flour be used in these muffins- they sound delicious! Thank you
Hi Peggy, we haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flours, but some readers have reported success using 1:1 flour substitutes (like Cup4Cup). If you try it, let us know how it goes!
I have used King Arthur Gluten Free all purpose flour for every recipe of yours that I’ve tried. They all turn out great. I made the gingerbread muffins and cooked them in square muffin cups. They were great the first day, but were very dry the next. I had put them in a cardboard pastry box overnight. That may have dried them out. I will try the recipe again, cook for a minute or two less since the squares are smaller than regular muffin tin, and not use the cardboard box.
I made these last night for my co-workers and everyone LOVED them!! So far everything I’ve made from your site, has been fabulous!!!
These were DELICIOUS! I’ve been trying different recipes and this one surpasses all of them. I only wish they weren’t so dense, otherwise, 5 out of 5!!
Wow!! Best muffins Ive made yet!!! Great recipe. Popped up and moist. Just awesome.
I made these today for my church group. They were a hit! I have never made muffins before but your recipe was easy enough and they were delicious. Thank you!
I have a soft spot for gingerbread anything. Usually the recipes are dense and heavy (which I love), this one was lovely and light and fluffy and just sweet enough. The kids also gave a thumbs up. Easy to bake, instructions were easy. Will be added to lunchbox baking routine. Thank you!
Wow, these are so good. I used ground oatmeal flour and did not put the glaze on, just sprinkled tops with pecans and they were soo good. If you use oatmeal flour let them cool completely before removing them from the pan, so they don’t crumble.
These are going to be my go-to Fall breakfast muffin.
Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
I made these today, they are awesome. I am not a big fan of gingerbread but I really loved this recipe. The glaze was a nice touch also. My husband really loved them also and he is a picky person when it comes to his sweets. He said you can make these again for me they are great.
These muffins turned out incredible! I wish I could add a picture of their perfect form and fluffiness! The spice amount was perfect, they were cakey but moist. The icing drizzled over the top took them to another level of deliciousness! Thank you for this recipe- I’m saving it so I can add it to one of my favorite muffin recipes from you! I’m definitely making these again.