Gingerbread Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup light brown sugar (firmly packed )
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon table salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ cup unsalted butter (melted )
• ½ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup unsulphured molasses
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Baking sugar (for sprinkling (see note))

Steps

1. 1

   Preheat oven to 425F (218C) and line a 12 count muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.

2. 2

   In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.

3. 3

   In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter, sour cream, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract until well combined.

4. 4

   Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a spatula to gently fold together until ingredients are just combined, be careful not to overmix.

5. 5

   (see note for larger muffins) Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle muffin tops with baking sugar. Bake in the center rack of your preheated 425F (218C) oven for 8 minutes, then without opening the oven door, reduce your oven temperature to 350F (175C) and continue to bake for another 7-8 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.

6. 6

   Allow muffins to cool in their pan for 5-10 minutes before carefully removing to a cooling rack to cool completely (removing the muffins helps keep the bottoms from becoming wet/soggy/greasy).