These Christmas morning muffins are made with Greek yogurt, filled with rosemary, dried cranberries, nutmeg and vanilla bean. Topped with a cinnamon crumble and vanilla nutmeg glaze they’re the perfect festive bite for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning has always meant pandoro in my family. If you’re not familiar, it’s basically panettone’s simpler cousin. No dried fruit in it, just sweet buttery (omg, so.much.butter) Italian cake/bread doused in powdered sugar. Every year since we were little, my grandmother would source about 15 of them from some legit Italian deli or Arthur Ave. in the Bronx (they come in a box, imported from Italy) and pass them out to all the family members on Christmas Eve so we’d get to wake up to deliciousness the next morning. Now that grandma is gone, my mom has dutifully taken over this responsibility and my Christmas pandoro is already sitting on the sideboard in my dining room just waiting for Christmas morning.

That said, if you try to eat just pandoro for breakfast, you’ll either a. eat about 2,500 calories worth of butter and sugar in about 5 minutes and/or b. be hungry about 10 seconds later because there’s absolutely no satiety to pandoro. Trust me on this one, after 33 years, I’ve learned.

Christmas morning is no time for eggs and other practical breakfast things though. No, no, no. It’s Christmas, it’s a magical day, it requires magical food (like this apricot brandy pound cake later on for dessert).

So, while I totally encourage you to try pandoro if you’ve never had it, I’m also going to suggest these Greek yogurt Christmas morning muffins.

Also check out this Cranberry Mascarpone English Muffin Casserole – another great option for Christmas morning!

Filled with dried cranberries, rosemary, nutmeg, vanilla bean paste, topped with a cinnamon sugar crumble and then glazed with a nutmeg vanilla bean icing, there’s no questioning their Christmas morning worthiness.

And unlike pandoro, Christmas morning muffins won’t set you back a days worth of calories and fat either.

I’m partnering with the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council (ADADC) who is supporting the Great American Milk Drive which delivers thousands of gallons of milk to families who would otherwise go without with their #GiveAGallon Milk Challenge that launched yesterday.

Milk is the no. 1 nutritious product requested by food bank clients, but it is rarely donated.  Nutritionists recommend 3 servings of milk a day, which is about a gallon each week, but 46 million Americans served by Feeding America only get on average 1 gallon of milk ALL year. Of the pounds of food available in food banks, only 5.3 percent is dairy, and 95 percent of food banks say they don’t receive enough milk to meet their clients’ needs.

With the #GiveAGallon Milk Challenge, every time a photo is posted on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook of a person, group or pet wearing a white mustache with “#GiveAGallon and text “MILK” to 80077” from Dec. 14, 2015 to Jan. 15, 2016, ADADC will donate $1 to Feeding America’s Great American Milk Drive, until $25,000 is donated.

If you want to see how many gallons have been donated to food banks in your state, and/or make donations directly, check out www.MilkLife.com/give. Also, join in on the twitter party fun this Thursday, Dec. 17th, $1 for each guest will be donated to the Great American Milk Drive. Details in the graphic below!

Also be sure to check out the other dairy filled recipes from these bloggers supporting the campaign too!

Slow Cooker Snowflake Hot Chocolate | Mini Cheddar Ranch Cheese Ball Bites | White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Milkshake | Savory Coeur la Crème with Cranberry | White Hot Chocolate | Eggnog Muffins | Eggnog Dutch Baby | Blueberry Pomegranate Smoothie

Yield: 12 servings

Greek Yogurt Christmas Morning Muffins

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These Christmas morning muffins are made with Greek yogurt, filled with rosemary, dried cranberries, nutmeg and vanilla bean. Topped with a cinnamon crumble and vanilla nutmeg glaze they're the perfect festive bite for Christmas morning.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

Muffins

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat white flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary
• 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup 2% plain Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste

Crumble topping

• 1 tablespoon cold butter, diced
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• pinch kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Glaze

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• milk to thin

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin with baking spray and set aside.
2. Combine the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, sugar, rosemary and cranberries in a large bowl.
3. Whisk together the eggs, Greek yogurt, milk, butter and vanilla bean paste in a medium bowl until smooth.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until incorporated.
5. Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tins.
6. Make the crumble topping by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and working the diced butter into the mixture using your fingers or a fork until the texture of coarse meal. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of the muffin batter in the tins.
7. Bake for 15-18 minutes until set.
8. Remove from oven, let cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
9. Make the glaze by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and stirring. Add milk as you go until desired consistency.
10. Drizzle the glaze over completely cooled muffins and serve.