GoodyFoodies: Recipe: Christmas Morning Muffins (Nigella Lawson)

Ah, wouldn't it be great waking up to the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg on Christmas morning? That was exactly what happened in our home on Christmas morning 2012.

Every Christmas, we would spend all day in indulging in good homecooked food. Usually for breakfast, it would be scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, but last year, I decided to make bacon egg toast cups as well as Nigella Lawson's Christmas morning muffins.

Christmas morning muffins.. a brilliant start to Christmas

Nigella suggests measuring out the dry ingredients the night before, but it really isn't too much trouble to do it on Christmas morning itself. I found this a relatively easy and laidback recipe, as I just had to mix everything together in a mixing bowl by hand. The smell of baking and spices filling the home was simply wonderful and the smiles on the children's face when they saw muffins first thing in the morning was just priceless.

Cherries are usually in season in December, and we bought a box for Christmas - for me, cherries are pretty festive. Suffice to say, we had an excellent breakfast that morning - the cherries were sweet and juicy, the bacon egg toast cups were delicious, and the muffins were fantastic (moist and smells so good!). Full of dried cranberries plus some chocolate chips thrown in for good measure.

Top your muffins with a cherry, if you like :)

Bacon egg toast cups (click for recipe)

Christmas Morning Muffins
Recipe adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess - Nigella Lawson
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 8

Ingredients
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup sugar
Good grating of fresh nutmeg
1 clementine or small orange, juice only
Approximately 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 tbsp chocolate chips

For the topping
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Fresh cherries (optional)

1. Line a 12-cup muffin tray with paper liners.

2. Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.

3. In a large bowl , sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar and grate over a generous amount of fresh nutmeg.

4. Place clementine or orange juice into a measuring cup, then pour milk on top till it comes to the 2/3 cup mark. Add the melted butter and egg, and beat to combine.

5. Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir until the ingredients are just combined. It's okay if it's a little lumpy (according to Nigella, lumpy batter makes light muffins).

6. Lightly fold in the cranberries and chocolate chip, then fill the muffin cups 2/3 full.

7. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins. Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Garnish with a fresh cherry, if you like.