Triple-Ginger Muffins

By Lidey Heuck

Updated September 21, 2021

  • Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist:Barrett Washburne.
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
35 minutes, plus cooling
Rating
4(785)
Comments
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A baked good for the true ginger fanatic, these muffins pack some serious spice thanks to the addition of grated fresh ginger, ground ginger and minced crystallized ginger. Molasses, a key ingredient in traditional gingerbread, gives the muffins a beautiful golden hue and helps keep them moist for days — if they last that long. (Any variety of molasses will work here, but there may be some color variation depending on the brand used.) For larger, bakery-style muffins, use a jumbo muffin pan and bake the muffins for a few extra minutes.

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Ingredients

Yield:12 muffins

  • 1 cup/201 grams granulated sugar

  • ½ cup/113 grams unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature

  • ¾ cup whole milk

  • ¼ cup molasses

  • 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger (from a 2-inch piece)

  • 2 cups/256 grams all-purpose flour

  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)

  • ¾ cup/108 grams, plus 3 tablespoons/27 grams minced crystallized ginger

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving

47 grams carbs; 53 milligrams cholesterol; 282 calories; 3 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 9 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 206 milligrams sodium; 4 grams protein; 30 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 375 degrees and line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.

  2. Step 2

    In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, butter, eggs, milk, molasses and grated ginger, and whisk until smooth.

  3. Step 3

    In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, ground ginger and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. (Be careful not to overmix! The batter will be slightly lumpy.) Stir in ¾ cup crystallized ginger, reserving the remaining 3 tablespoons for the topping.

  4. Step 4

    Using an ice cream scoop or a large spoon, divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the reserved crystallized ginger onto the tops of the muffins, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the muffins spring back when lightly pressed. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully transfer muffins to a cooling rack and cool completely.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
785 user ratings
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Comments

mosaic

I made as written and it was too sweet for me. I made a second batch cutting sugar to 2/3 cup of sugar and adding 1-1/2 tsp very fresh garam masala. I’ll make that again.

Deb W

I have a beloved ginger crinkle cookie recipe that calls for ¾ cups of finely chopped ginger. After numerous different techniques attempted over the years, I've perfected the process: snip the crystallized ginger into long, very thin strips with a kitchen shears, then gather up the strips a few at a time and snip them crosswise into tiny cubes. This technique helps keep most of the sugar on the tiny pieces, and they don't stick together. A bit tedious, not nearly as bad as mincing with a knife.

Jack (NYC)

These were delicious, like a soft version of a really good ginger snap, and I didn't think they were too sweet at all. However, the estimate of 35 minutes to make these is not realistic. Mincing all of that crystalized ginger is slow and messy. A food processor didn't work because it stuck to the blades, so I minced it by hand, which worked, but took over 20 minutes. For the grated ginger I used some from a jar which worked well. Plan on 1 hour from start to finish.

Annandale-ish

Keeper recipe!! I had some cranberries lingering in the freezer from the holidays and no plan for cranberry sauce for a while :). Used this as a base but pivoted, adding a heaping cup of frozen cranberries instead of the crystallized ginger. Outstanding!! They took a little longer to cook, as expected, and I got a higher yield (17). Other commenters talked about lowering the sugar, but with tart cranberries, the full cup was exactly what I wanted! The ginger punches and the molasses is subtle.

Karin E.

The bottoms burned on my muffins. I think my oven runs hotter than 375. Also, adding the melted, cooled butter to milk made it clump up, which I'm not sure was supposed to happen. The taste was great. I might cream the butter and sugar next time and bake these at 350 to see if they turn out better.

rhosevans

Looking at the recipe, I could see it would result rich little cakes. So I cut the sugar to half a cup of brown sugar - still plenty, will cut it more in future - and reduced the melted butter by half. Skipped the molasses. I tossed the diced candied ginger in a teaspoon of Demerara sugar to keep the pieces separate. Another change was substituting a cup of whole-wheat flour for one of the cups of flour. The result: delicious muffins that I definitely will make again and again.

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