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Christmas muffins

If you have kids, it's worth investing in festive muffin or cupcake moulds - you can buy silicon ones relatively cheaply. These Christmas muffins taste like a combination of Stollen and gingerbread cookies. I bake them every year in star and Christmas tree shapes - they are always very popular with kids and adults! Nicely decorated, they make excellent gifts too!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Resting Time 4 hours
Total Time 1 hour
Servings: 6 people
Cuisine: British
Calories: 1234
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 3 Tbsp honey
  • 75 g butter or dairy-free margarine
  • 100 g self-raising flour
  • 100 g whole-wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp dark muscovado sugar
  • 50 g sultanas
  • 50 g candied citrus peel or pieces
  • 2 Tbsp dried cranberries
  • 1 orange grated zest and juice
  • 1 lemon grated zest and juice
  • 1 egg
  • 150 ml buttermilk or oaty cream
  • 100 ml milk or oaty milk
  • Spice mixture:
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp of ground cloves
  • ¼ ground star anise
  • one large pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
  • Decoration:
  • about 50g icing sugar for the icing
  • edible beads silver balls or glitter

Method
 

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the honey, then turn it off and let it cool.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  3. Mix the spices.
  4. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and the spice mixture. Add the raisins, dried cranberries and candied citrus fruits, the zest of the lemon and orange and juice of the orange. Gently combine.
  5. Mix the eggs with the milk and buttermilk, then add the honey and butter mixture. Pour this into the flour mixture, then gently stir until combined.
  6. Spoon the batter into a lined muffin tin or silicon cases and bake until light brown, for about 20-25 minutes.
  7. Transfer them to a wire rack or leave them to cool in the silicon cases.
  8. Mix some icing sugar with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice and pour this over the muffins. Scatter some silver beads or glitter on top and let them set. Or just dust the muffins with icing sugar (mixed with a touch of cinnamon).