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Double Chocolate Cranberry Gingerbread Muffins

adapted from Bed and Breakfast Cookbook by Pamela Lanier

Dessert | Servings: 18
Prep time: 20 min | Cook time: 20 min | Total time: 40 min

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1.5 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (chips are fine)
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 1/4 cups flour*
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 cup buttermilk**
• 1 1/2 cups cranberries, thawed if frozen, chopped***
• 1/2 cup white chocolate, chips or chunks (optional)

* I used 1 1/4 cup AP flour and 1 cup white whole wheat flour. Regular whole wheat flour should work fine, too. Either way, sift whole wheat flour to make it a bit finer or you could use whole wheat pastry flour instead.

** If you don’t have buttermilk (I almost never do), just add 1 tbsp. of white vinegar to a cup of regular milk and let sit out for about 10 minutes.

*** I just chop the very large ones because I like biting into whole cranberries.

Process

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Fill muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.*

   *Note: I usually don’t bother with liners, but I would recommend them here because even in very well greased muffin tins, if there are any chocolate or cranberries on the bottom/sides of the muffin, it will stick to the pan.

2. In a small sauce pan, melt butter and semi/bittersweet chocolate over low heat. Alternately, you can melt in the microwave in 30 second bursts. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
3. Combine brown sugar, flour, cocoa, soda, salt and spices in a bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the egg, molasses, and milk. Stir in the melted chocolate.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just blended. Carefully fold in the cranberries and white chocolate.
6. Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 – 3/4 full. DO NOT overfill because larger muffins will fall apart more easily. An ice cream scoop works really well for this. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes and then transfer each muffin to a wire rack to finish cooling.