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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Mulled Cranberry Vodka Cocktail

Pretty to look at, even more delicious to sip, this mulled cranberry vodka cocktail boasts the best flavors of the season in a refreshing drink that goes down way too easy. Mix up a batch for your holiday party!

My younger daughter is a fan of mulled wine. I can take it or leave it. But I think I have finally found a mulled drink I do love. Mulled cranberry juice is lighter than wine and lends itself to a cold cocktail as easily as a warming cup.

I also chose not to simmer the juice with the spices for hours on end. A quick boil and time to infuse while the drink cools gives just the right amount of seasonal spiciness that is not cloying or overwhelming. The tart cranberry still shines through brightly. And look at the beautiful color!

Have I convinced you yet? Do give this a try. And make sure you scroll down to see the rest of the winter cocktail recipes my Sunday Supper group are sharing today.

Mulled Cranberry Vodka Cocktail

Ingredients
For the mulled cranberry juice:
4 1/4 cups or 1 liter cranberry juice
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
zest 1/2 clementine

For the garnish:
1/4 cup or 35g fresh cranberries
1/8 cup or 25g sugar

For the cocktail:
1 1/2 oz or ml vodka
8 oz or 240ml mulled cranberry juice
Ice

Method
Use a sharp knife to remove the zest from half of your clementine, leaving behind as much of the white pith as possible.

Add the cinnamon stick, cloves and clementine zest to the cranberry juice in a medium sized pot. Bring the juice to a boil. Boil briefly, about 3-4 minutes, then turn the heat off and leave to cool.

Once cool, strained the mulled cranberry juice to remove the spices and clementine zest, then chill it in the refrigerator.

Wash the cranberries thoroughly and dry them in a colander until just damp. Roll them in the sugar until completely coated. Use a sharp cocktail stick to poke through three or four per stick to create the garnish. Set aside on a clean plate sprinkled with a little more sugar.

When you are ready to serve the mulled cranberry vodka cocktail, fill your glasses with 5-6 ice cubes.

Add in the vodka and top up with mulled cranberry juice. Garnish with the sugar-coated cranberry skewers, if desired.

Enjoy!

Check out all of the winter cocktail recipes we are sharing today. Many thanks to our event manager, Christie from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures.

Cocktail Shakers

• Bourbon Flipby Sunday Supper Movement
• Buttery Nipple Cocktail by Positively Stacey
• Candy Cane Cocktail by My Blissful Mess
• Cranberry Moscow Mule by Restless Chipotle
• Ginger Caramel Apple Mule by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Mincemeat Manhattan by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Mulled Cranberry Vodka Cocktail by Food Lust People Love
• Snow Honey Cocktail by Our Good Life
• Sugar Plum Martini by Pies and Plots

Winter Wines and Punch

• Apple Cider Sangria by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Christmas Party Punch by Palatable Pastime
• Cranberry Champagne Cocktail by The Freshman Cook
• Gluhwein (German Mulled Wine) by Caroline’s Cooking
• Rosemary and Blood Orange Sangria for a Party by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks

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Cinnamon Pumpkin Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Tender pumpkin insides and crunchy sugar outsides make these cinnamon pumpkin cookies perfect for your holiday table.

I love the sparkle of demerara sugar. Rolling the cinnamon pumpkin cookie dough in those big sugar crystals is what makes these cookies special, plus it also makes the dough less sticky and easier to shape.

If you can’t find it in your local supermarket or bakery supply store, you can order it from Amazon.  <affiliate link*. I use it on all sorts of baked goods, when a little shine is welcome, like my chili maple bacon cookies and blueberry pie with polenta shortcake crust. It also makes a rich and wonderful simple syrup to use in cocktails like an Irish blackberry cobbler or pomelo margaritas.

But this month for our Creative Cookie Exchange, we are sharing cookies that make an easy, last minute Thanksgiving holiday dessert or treat so I made cinnamon pumpkin cookies. They can be made ahead, frozen, and baked when needed, so you are ready at a moment's notice when unexpected guests arrive. Or you can bake them ahead of time and freeze them after. They thaw almost instantly, always a plus for a busy holiday.

Mix up a batch of these fabulous cookies for your next gathering. I almost called these pumpkindoodles, you know, like snickerdoodles but pumpkin. But there is nothing absent-minded about that crunchy demerara sugar. It's all there.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients for about 2 dozen cookies
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup or 100g soft dark brown sugar
1/2 cup or 113g butter, softened
2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
1 large egg
3/4 cup or 150g canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) or steamed, mashed fresh pumpkin

For rolling the dough:
1 cup or 220g Demerara or other large grained sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method
Whisk together your flour, salt, baking powder and ground cinnamon in bowl. Set aside.

With your hand beaters or in the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the brown sugar, butter and molasses.

Tip: The molasses will slide easily off of your measuring spoon if you give it a quick spray with Pam or your favorite non-stick spray first.

Add in the egg and pumpkin and beat for another minute or so, scraping down the bowl halfway through.

With the beaters on low, add in the flour mixture a little at a time, until it is fully incorporated.

Line a baking pan with parchment and use a scoop or a couple of tablespoons to divide the soft dough into about 24-26 portions. Pop the pan into the freezer and set a timer for about 45 minutes, if you are planning to bake the same day.

Meanwhile, mix the demerara sugar with the ground cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.

When the dough is almost finished chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your cookie pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Remove only 12 (or however many cookies your pan can fit) pieces of dough from the freezer.

Roll each into a ball and pop it in the bowl of cinnamon sugar. Shake the bowl to coat. Use your hands to press each ball into a disk shape and press both sides of the disk back into the cinnamon sugar.

Place them on the prepared pan.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 12-14 minutes, or until the cinnamon pumpkin cookies are puffed and set. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before serving or storing in an airtight container.

Repeat with the remaining dough, until all the cookies are baked.

Alternatively you can completely freeze the dough pieces so they won’t stick together, then transfer them to a Ziploc bag. Keep them frozen until you are ready to bake. Remove just the number you want to bake from the freezer. Let them thaw just enough so you can roll them into balls and continue with the instructions for rolling them in the sugar, shaping and baking.

I’ve tested it both ways and the cookies turn out great either baked the same day or after freezing the dough.

Enjoy!

Are you needing last minute treat recipes for Thanksgiving? Check out all the cookies we’ve got for you today!

• Apple Cranberry Jammers from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Cinnamon Pumpkin Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Cranberry Crumble Bars from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cranberry White Chocolate Sugar Cookies from Queenbeebaker
• Maple Walnut Spice Cookies from What Smells So Good?
• Silky Bittersweet Brownies from The Spiced Life

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

*Disclaimer: Amazon affiliate links earn me a few pennies when you make a purchase by following one, even if you don't buy the item I've listed. Your cost remains the same.

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