These Gingerbread Muffins are soft, tender and full of festive flavors like warm baking spices and molasses. Serve with a steaming cup of coffee or hot chocolate for a cozy holiday breakfast, snack or dessert.

Best Gingerbread Muffins

We are absolutely loving gingerbread this year. The combination of molasses, cinnamon and spicy ginger is so cozy and nostalgic during the holidays. These Gingerbread Muffins are perfect for a festive winter breakfast, snack or even dessert. I like to serve them with a steaming hot mug of coffee for the adults or hot chocolate for the kiddos.

We’ve given you a few ideas for simple variations below, including added coarse sugar or streusel to the tops, and drizzling with tangy lemon glaze. If gingerbread is your thing, you can also try our recipes for Gingerbread Cake, Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies and Gingerbread Cookie Bars. And if you love all things ginger, be sure to try our Lemon Ginger Honey Tea.

Photos showing a glass mixing bowl full of muffin batter, baked muffins in a muffin tin and bake muffins in muffin liners cooling on a wire rack.

Key Ingredients

Sugar – this recipe calls for white granulated sugar. If you want, you can try substituting half brown sugar.
Butter – make sure your butter is at room temperature so that it is soft enough to cream in the mixer. If you forget to pull it out ahead of time, place it on a microwave safe plate and heat for about 10 seconds at a time just until softened.
Eggs – any large eggs will work. It’s best to let it come to room temperature, or run the egg under warm water for 1 minute just before using.
Molasses – this is largely what gives gingerbread its signature flavor.
Buttermilk – this adds a bit of tang and also keeps the batter nice and tender.
Flour – all-purpose flour works great.
Baking Powder and Baking Soda – these give the muffins a bit of rise in the oven and keep them nice and soft.
Baking Spices – this recipe calls for cinnamon, ground ginger and ground cloves.

How to Make Gingerbread Muffins

Mix the butter, sugars and eggs. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar using the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes. Slowly add the eggs, scraping down the sides as needed, then add the molasses and mix again on low until fully incorporated.
Alternate the dry ingredients and buttermilk. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt. Whisk together. Alternate adding half of the dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk until all ingredients are well mixed and no dry flour or streaks of butter remain.
Fill muffin tins. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans filling them about 3/4 full.
Bake. Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Serve. Remove the muffins from the oven and let cool to room temperature before serving. Enjoy!

Gingerbread Muffins with their cupcake liners peeled off resting on a table next to cinnamon sticks. Christmas morning muffins.

Recipe Variations

Streusel topping. Make the streusel topping from our Pumpkin Muffins recipe, replacing the pumpkin pie spice with an equal amount of cinnamon and ground ginger.
Crunchy sugar topping. Sprinkle coarse sugar over the tops of each muffin just before baking. This gives a crunchy sugar topping with very minimal effort.
Glaze. Drizzle lemon glaze over the tops of warm or cooled muffins, allowing the glaze to set up before serving.
Gingerbread loaves. Bake the muffin batter in 2 8”x4” loaf pans instead. The only difference is they will need to bake for longer in the oven.
Gluten-free Gingerbread Muffins. Try substituting all-purpose flour with a gluten-free baking flour. Nowadays, there are quite a few brands available at most grocery stores.

Storing and Freezing

Room Temperature: you can store Gingerbread Muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Refrigerator: store any leftover Gingerbread Muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. We recommend bringing them to room temperature before eating.
Freezer: these freeze great for up to 2 months. Store in an airtight container or freezer bags and thaw out in the fridge overnight or on the counter top for a few hours.

Here are more of our favorite muffin recipes:

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