Candied Fruit Christmas Muffins #MuffinMonday

Candied fruit Christmas muffins are made with a sweet, but not too sweet, vanilla crumb, filled with a mix of chewy fruit. They smell wonderful while they bake, filling the house with the sweet scent of Christmas. Perfect for a holiday breakfast or snack time with a hot cup of tea.

I came across a recipe recently for packaging up muffin mixes as gifts over on the BBC Good Food site and I thought, what an excellent idea!  Not that I was going to make the mixes to give away – I don’t have enough friends nearby who like to bake – but the muffins called for mixed fruit with candied peel.

I don’t know if it’s nostalgia for my grandmother’s fruitcake – she made the only version I would ever eat, not too dry with the just the right mix of fruit and nuts – but candied fruit always makes me think of Christmas. What could be better for this month’s Muffin Monday than a candied fruit Christmas muffin in anticipation of the holidays?

I used my favorite make-ahead breakfast muffin recipe but I cut back on the sugar because of all the candied fruit. These are sweet enough, I promise.

Candied Fruit Christmas Muffins

The chewy fruit and spices make these muffins smell and taste like Christmas. Put these in the oven on Christmas morning and your family will pop out of bed to find out what you are baking!

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 150g candied fruit peel and fruit medley, plus a little extra for garnish, if desired
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Generously grease cups and top of 12-cup muffin tin or line your pan with muffin paper cups.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, mixed spice and salt, along with the candied fruit. Use your clean hands to mix the fruit in, rubbing the pieces between your fingers to separate those that are stuck together so they can be coated with the flour mixture.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, vanilla and eggs.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened. 

Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups and top with a few pieces of candied fruit.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other wonderful muffins my Muffin Monday group is sharing today!

• Apple Butter Muffin Tops from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Apple Streusel Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Beet Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Candied Fruit Christmas Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Crab Corn Muffin from Kelli's Kitchen
• Fruitcake Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Jim ‘n Nick’s Cheesy Muffins - Copycat from Making Miracles
• Shoofly Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook

 #MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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