Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Morning Muffins


On Christmas morning, I like to start off the day with some fruit and something fresh from the oven such as madeleine's, panettone or stolen. Sure, later on there will be bacon, sausages and the works, but I'm talking about early in the morning, with my coffee and presents, I like warm baking.


This holiday I believe I will be turning out Nigella's Christmas Morning Muffins for our little family. Perfumed with the zest from the clementines and sweetened with the juice, these muffins are rightly named. Red cranberries give them some holiday color and as they are full of spices, they give the kitchen a wonderful smell when they are baking.


I'm loving my new cookbook, Nigella Christmas, which was an early present from Danny. (Here Jasmine reviews the cookbook) I'm doing her Stuffed Loin of Pork with Rubied Gravy for Christmas Eve dinner: pork loin stuffed with bacon and cranberries and wrapped in bacon. How amazing is that?!
This is my first Nigella cookbook, and hmm, she really loves her bacon. We'd get along great.


Here's the recipe. I've cut back on the amount of dried cranberries and am temped to throw some dark chocolate chunks in next time. It IS Christmas, after all.

Christmas Morning Muffins
Adapted from Nigella Christmas

Makes 12 large
250g flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
100g sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash of fresh nutmeg
2 clementines
approx 125ml milk
75 ml vegetable oil (or melted butter)
1 egg
100g dried cranberries
3 teaspoons demerara sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a muffin with papers and set aside.
Measure the flour baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and spices into a large bowl; grate the zest of the clementines over and combine. If you are doing this in advance, leave the zesting till Christmas morning.
Squeeze the juice of the clementines into a measuring jug and pour in the milk until it comes to the 200ml mark.
Add the oil or butter and egg, and lightly beat until just combined.
Pour this liquid mixture into the bowl of dried ingredients and stir gently until well combined.
Fold in the cranberries, then spoon the batter into the muffin tins. Sprinkle with demerara if desired.
Bake for 20 minutes or so until tops are firm to the touch.

5 comments:

LyB said...

Those muffins do look festive and perfect for Christmas morning. I really like Nigella Christmas too, it's full of inspiration. :)

Emily said...

Holy cow! These look amazing. I'm looooving your pictures.

We didn't have Christmas breakfast and it sucked.

We had BBQ later. Ehhhh.

Culinary Wannabe said...

I love Nigella - she always make elegant dishes attainable and not overly fussy. And, and I am ALL for the idea of starting out with baked goods and coffee before moving on to the actual breakfast portion of the Christmas morning show. Why hadn't I thought of that!!

Anonymous said...

Yum! I'm now completely wanting her cookbook - sounds sooo good!

Julie D said...

I made this, and the flavor was divine! I just over-cooked them I think. I will for sure have to try again.
Lovely blog you have. Thanks for sharing!

http://julesdu.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/7-days-of-baking-day-two/

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