Gingerbread Muffins

Yesterday my mom and I spent the afternoon making muffins for a local homelessness organization. Safe Harbor is a local program put together by the churches in the area. During the cold winter months the churches band together and each take a week to provide shelter and food for the homeless. They’re served breakfast and dinner and a place to stay. The food is provided by volunteers and that’s where I come in!

My mom volunteered to make breakfast this week since her church was the one providing and she asked if I would be interested in helping bake! Like I’m going to turn that down! We went through a good 20 recipes for muffins that I’d picked out and selected a few that looked the best. These little beauties were one of the first up!

They turned out amazing (we had one of each batch to sample. We couldn’t send awful stuff to these people, after all :)) I filled the muffin tins much too full and all of them ended up flat and enormous and the tops smushed a little bit. But otherwise, gingerbread perfection! I kept thinking while doing the sampling that they’d be really good with just a light smidge of icing on them. Perhaps next time! The original recipe called for a peach glaze which we ended up leaving off. I can only imagine that’d be really good too.

Gingerbread Muffins
makes 18 muffins
print this recipe

Ingredients:
½ C sugar
½ C butter
1 egg
1 C molasses
2 C flour
2 ½ t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 ½ t. ginger
½ t. cinnamon
½ C buttermilk
½ C coca cola, apple cider or apple juice (I used coca cola)
1 t. brandy flavoring or vanilla extract (I used vanilla)

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350°. Prepare 18 muffin pan cups with paper liners or grease well with oil. Set aside the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until it is fluffy. Beat in the egg and molasses until blended.

Sift together the dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Set aside

In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk, cocoa cola (or juice) and vanilla.

Gradually add the flour mixture into the mixing bowl, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, ending with the flour. Mix until combined.

Fill each muffin  cup only ¾ of the way full. Don’t overfill! Trust me!

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.

Source: Vintage Victuals